A Santa Cruz walk

The quarter

Wikipedia says Seville's Jewish community, second on the peninsula only to Toledo's, was concentrated here, and that the neighbourhood declined after the expulsion of 1492. The quarter's edges run along Calle Mateos Gago, the Real Alcázar, the gardens of Murillo and the streets Santa María la Blanca and San José. Under Ferdinand III of Castile, the article says, the city's Jewish population was concentrated here, second in the Iberian Peninsula only to Toledo. After the expulsion of 1492 the neighbourhood declined.

The cathedral and the Giralda

Wikipedia says the quarter contains the Cathedral of Seville, including the Giralda, which it describes as the converted minaret of a former Moorish mosque. The tower is the easiest landmark for finding your bearings in the lanes. Flamenco Sevilla's page puts the guitar house a few minutes from the cathedral, though the streets bend and a tower that appears ahead of you can vanish behind a corner before you reach its foot.

Plaza de Santa Cruz

According to Wikipedia, the Plaza de Santa Cruz stands on the site of the former Church of Santa Cruz, which was built over the ruins of a synagogue and gave the quarter its name. The church was demolished during the Napoleonic Wars as part of an urban renewal, and its old floor survives as the plaza. Wikipedia adds that the painter Murillo was buried in the demolished church.

The Church of Santa Cruz

The parish moved to the present Church of Santa Cruz on Calle Mateos Gago. Wikipedia says it holds a painting of the Last Supper by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Check the church's own page for visiting hours before you plan a stop; they are not covered here. The street is also one of the quarter's borders, so it makes a handy edge to walk along if you want a straight line through a district of bends, and it keeps the cathedral and the guitar house within reach.

Two old synagogues

Wikipedia says that in the 18th century an urban renewal converted a former synagogue in the quarter into the Church of Saint Bartholomew. Just outside the quarter stands the Church of Santa María la Blanca, a converted 14th-century Mudéjar synagogue. Both are reminders of the quarter's earlier history; the article is the source for the facts, and the churches' own pages are the places to check before a visit.

The Murillo thread

Murillo turns up several times in Wikipedia's account of the quarter. His Last Supper hangs in the Church of Santa Cruz on Calle Mateos Gago, he was buried in the church that once stood on the site of the plaza, and the Jardines de Murillo form one of the quarter's borders. For a walker the thread is a loose one: three places to look for, none of which needs a ticket to see from the street.

Around the door

On Calle Mesón del Moro, a tile plaque records that the singer Silverio Franconetti lived in a house on the street; Wikimedia Commons places it at number 12, the guitar house. Dinner is a separate booking, so choose where you will eat first. The ticket covers the show and the collection only. Leave the rest of the evening loose, and let the lanes decide.

Read next: Inside the guitar house