Santa Cruz, is the primary tourist neighborhood of

Seville, Spain Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, and the former

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

quarter of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighbourhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the

Cathedral of Seville The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See ( es, Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along ...

, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

Giralda The Giralda ( es, La Giralda ) is the bell tower of Seville Cathedral in Seville, Spain. It was built as the minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style ...

History

Santa Cruz was Seville's old ''judería'' ( Jewish quarter): when

Ferdinand III of Castile Ferdinand III ( es, Fernando, link=no; 1199/120130 May 1252), called the Saint (''el Santo''), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguel ...

conquered the city from Muslim rule, he concentrated the city's

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish population—second in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

only to that of Toledo—in this single neighborhood. After the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled the Jews from Spain, the neighborhood went downhill. In the 18th century, the neighborhood underwent a major process of

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

, including the conversion of a former synagogue into the current Church of Saint Bartholomew. File:Spain Andalusia Seville BW 2015-10-23 15-08-37.jpg, ''Patio de Banderas'' File:SevillaBarrioDeSantaCruz01.jpg, Street dating from the old ''judería''. File:SevillaBarrioDeSantaCruz02.jpg, Street dating from the old ''judería''. File:SevillaBarrioDeSantaCruz03.jpg, Street dating from the old ''judería''. File:SevillaBarrioDeSantaCruz04.jpg, Street dating from the old ''judería''. File:Sevilla2005July 038.jpg, ''Iglesia de Santa Cruz'', seen from the

. File:Plaza de Santa Cruz 2.jpg, ''Plaza de Santa Cruz''. Detail of the Cruz de la Cerrajería ("Locksmith's Cross"). File:Iglesia de Santa Cruz de Sevilla.jpg, Façade of the ''Iglesia de Santa Cruz'' in Calle Mateos Gago. File:Hospital de los venerables.jpg, Patio of the ''Hospital de los Venerables''. Just outside the neighborhood is the Iglesia de Santa María de las Nieves ("Church of Saint Mary of the Snows"), better known as the Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca ("Saint Mary the White"), a converted 14th century Mudéjar synagogue.

Origin of the name

The present-day Plaza de Santa Cruz was once the site of the Iglesia de Santa Cruz (Church of the Holy Cross), a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

that gave its name to the neighborhood. The church in

Mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...

style was constructed over the ruins of a synagogue, incorporating the floor of that older building. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

the church was demolished as part of an urban renewal scheme, the old floor remained as the present plaza. The parish was moved to the monastery of the Clérigos del Espíritu Santo ("clerics of the Holy Spirit"), now the current Iglesia de Santa Cruz in Calle Mateos Gago (Mateos Gago Street). The present church houses a painting of the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

by 17th century painter (and Santa Cruz resident) Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; Murillo was buried in the demolished parish church where the plaza now stands.

The labyrinth

The Barrio de Santa Cruz is a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys dating back to the old ''judería''. These narrow streets provide protection from the oppressive sun of the Sevillian summer. Scattered through the neighborhood are several plazas or squares. Among these are the aforementioned Plaza de Santa Cruz, the Plaza de los Venerables, the Plaza de las Cruces, the Plaza de Doña Elvira, and the Plaza de los Refinadores. The Plaza de Santa Cruz, on the site of an old parish church and an older synagogue, has at its center an elaborate 17th century

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

cross, the Cruz de la Cerrajería ("Locksmith's Cross"). The Plaza de los Venerables is full of bars and terraces. Its name is believed to come from the onetime Hospital para Venerables Sacerdotes; it may have been the birthplace of

Don Juan Tenorio ''Don Juan Tenorio: Drama religioso-fantástico en dos partes'' (Don Juan Tenorio: Religious-Fantasy Drama in Two Parts) is a play written in 1844 by José Zorrilla. It is the more romantic of the two principal Spanish-language literary interpr ...

. The tiny Plaza de las Cruces, has three columns, each topped by a cross. The elegant Plaza de Doña Elvira, with its ''

azulejos ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, resta ...

'' (tiles),

orange tree Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

s, fountains, and brick-and-tile benches, once a

corral de comedias ''Corral de comedias'', literally a "theatrical courtyard", is a type of open-air theatre specific to Spain. In Spanish all secular plays were called ''comedias'', which embraced three genres: tragedy, drama, and comedy itself. During the Spani ...

(a type of open-air theater), is the supposed birthplace of Don Juan Tenorio's impossible love, the mythical

Doña Inés de Ulloa Don (; ; pt, Dom, links=no ; all from Latin ', roughly 'Lord'), abbreviated as D., is an honorific prefix primarily used in Spain and Hispanic America, and with different connotations also in Italy, Portugal and its former colonies, and Croatia ...

, daughter of Don Gonzalo. The Plaza de los Refinadores has a graceful sculpture of Don Juan. Other plazas are the Plaza de Alfaro and the Plaza de la Alianza (formerly Plaza del Pozo Seco), along the city wall. Besides these public squares, one can glimpse (and smell) the flowering plants in the patios of private houses. The Callejón del Agua, an alley parallel to the city walls, was once the route along which water was brought to the royal Alcázar of Seville, and was once the home of the American writer

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

, as is recorded by a plaque made by

Mariano Benlliure Mariano Benlliure y Gil (8 September 18629 November 1947) was a Spanish sculptor and medallist, who executed many public monuments and religious sculptures in Spain, working in a heroic realist style. Life and works He was born in the Lower St ...

. The alley also leads to one of the exits from the neighborhood, via the Jardines de Murillo. Another exit from Santa Cruz is the Callejón de la Judería and the enormous Patio de Banderas adjacent to the Alcázar and the city walls. The Calle de las Cruces has two wooden crosses on a painted red wall; the Calle de Santa Teresa is the site of the Casa de Murillo and of a 17th-century Carmelite convent founded by Saint

Teresa of Ávila Teresa of Ávila, OCD (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada; 28 March 15154 or 15 October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Active during t ...

; the Calle de Lope de Rueda is known for its mansions; the Calle Mateos Gago gives one of the best views of the

. Other streets are less famous, but no less beautiful: the Calle de la Gloria, Calle Mezquita, Calle Vida, Calle Pimienta, Calle Justino de Neve, Calle Jamerdana and Calle Susona (formerly Calle de la Muerte).

Streets

* Calle Pimienta * Calle Justino de Neve * Callejón del Agua * Calle Vida * Calle Susona * Calle de la Judería * Calle Jamerdana * Calle Gloria * Calle Aire * Calle Mateos Gago * Calle Tintes

Plazas

* Plaza de la Alianza * Plaza de Alfaro * Plaza de Doña Elvira * Plaza de la Escuela de Cristo * Plaza de los Refinadores * Plaza de Santa Cruz * Plaza de Santa Marta * Plaza del Triunfo * Plaza de los Venerables * Plaza Virgen de los Reyes * Patio de Banderas

Notable buildings

Palacio de Altamira Palacio (''palace'') is a Spanish habitational name. It may have originated from many places in Spain, especially in Galicia and Asturies. Notable people with the surname include: * Agustina Palacio de Libarona (1825-1880), Argentine writer, sto ...

* Iglesia de Santa Cruz * Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca * Iglesia de San José * Convento de Madre de Dios * Hospital de los Venerables *

* Postigo de la Judería or the Torre del Agua, in the callejón de la Judería {{Neighborhoods of Seville Neighbourhoods of Seville Tourist attractions in Seville Articles containing video clips