Real Alcázar

This palace has been continuously occupied by royalty for over a thousand years, making it one of the oldest royal residences still in active use anywhere in the world. The Spanish royal family still stays here when visiting Seville, sleeping in rooms whose foundations were laid by the Abbadid dynasty in the tenth century. Every ruler since has added, demolished, and redecorated something, which is why you can walk from a Moorish courtyard into a Gothic hall and then stumble into a Renaissance garden without ever leaving the building.

The most jaw-dropping section is the Palacio de Don Pedro, built in the 1360s by King Pedro I — known to friends as "the Just" and to enemies as "the Cruel." Pedro hired Muslim craftsmen from Granada and Toledo to create a Mudejar masterpiece that rivals the Alhambra itself. The intricate stucco work, horseshoe arches, and geometric tilework were not relics of Moorish rule; they were commissioned by a Christian king who simply thought Islamic art was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

The gardens sprawl across seven hectares of fountains, pavilions, and a hedge maze that was famously used as the Water Gardens of Dorne in Game of Thrones. Long before HBO arrived, Emperor Charles V walked these paths after his marriage here in 1526, and the mercury-filled pool in the Jardin de la Danza supposedly reflects light in ways that enchanted visitors for centuries.

More than 2 million visitors pass through each year, but the Alcazar still feels surprisingly intimate. The Patio de las Doncellas — the Courtyard of the Maidens — is the masterpiece: a sunken garden surrounded by arches and tilework so precise that modern restorers needed laser scanners to understand the original geometry.