Santa Cruz Square
The square that gives its name to the neighborhood
The primitive Church of Santa Cruz was erected in 1391 by the Cabildo of the city, in the time of Henry III of Castile over a pre-existing synagogue in the same place. This temple was expropriated and demolished on Wednesday, July 11, 1810 by the French occupation government of the time, within a broader plan of redevelopment of the city, giving rise to the open space that currently forms the square.
The current appearance of the square is as follows.
The current appearance of the square is due to the urbanization projected by Juan Talavera y Heredia in 1918. Presided over by a wrought iron cross made by Sebastian Conde in the year 1692, located in the center of the garden that decorates the square. This cross was located until 1840 in Sierpes street, at its confluence with Rioja street. The cross is designed as a lantern cross from which four snakes emerge, which refer to Sierpes Street, its original location, and on their heads are supported by angels carrying forged lanterns. According to some historians the real name of the Cross of the Cerrajería was the Cross of the Sierpes, or serpents, according to the work «The Cicerone of Seville» by Alejandro Guichot. The Cerrajería Cross was moved to the current location in 1918, on the occasion of the remodeling of the Plaza de Santa Cruz designed by the architect Juan Talavera y Heredia.
The guide cross with which opens the procession every Holy Tuesday the Brotherhood of Santa Cruz is a reproduction based on this Cerrajería Cross that presides over the square. This guide cross in the image of the one that presides over the square is the work of the workshop of Orfebrería Hermanos Delgado López of Seville in 1998.
On the facade of the building to the west of the square, you can read a tombstone placed by the Academy of Fine Arts in 1858 that recalls that in that place, in what was the primitive temple of Santa Cruz, were buried the remains of the famous Sevillian painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.
