Live Seville

Parks and gardens of Seville: the city in the shade

Tiled arbours, palm trees, ponds and great trees: Seville’s parks are gardens to linger in, designed for a city where shade is worth its weight in gold.

By María Ramírez, Official Tourist Guide · Reviewed on 25 September 2026

Seville’s essential park is María Luisa Park, next to Plaza de España. Also worth it are the Real Alcázar gardens, visited with its ticket, the Murillo gardens by Santa Cruz and, for open space and sport, Alamillo Park and the promenades along the Guadalquivir.

What a Sevillian garden is like

The Sevillian garden has Andalusi roots: running water, shade, geometry and orange trees. On that base came the Renaissance gardens of the palaces, the Romantic promenades of the nineteenth century and, in the twentieth, the regionalist style of the 1929 Exposition, with arbours, tiled benches and ceramic fountains.

What unites them is the climate. Here a park is not a lawn open to the sun but a place of refuge: great fig trees, plane trees, palms and bougainvillea, ponds and corners made for sitting. In spring come orange blossom and the violet of the jacarandas.

Parks and gardens worth visiting

María Luisa Park
Infanta María Luisa de Borbón donated much of her palace gardens to the city in 1893, and landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier transformed them for the 1929 Exposition. Arbours dedicated to writers, ponds, the duck island and Plaza de América with its pavilions. Next to it lies Plaza de España.
Real Alcázar gardens
Centuries of garden-making layered together: Andalusi courtyards, Renaissance gardens, ponds and galleries. They are visited with the Real Alcázar ticket and deserve a good hour on their own.
Murillo gardens
Right against the Alcázar wall and the Santa Cruz quarter, with enormous fig trees and the Columbus monument. A green breather a few steps from the monumental centre.
Alamillo Park
To the north, beside the Alamillo bridge, it is one of the city’s largest parks: meadows, groves and paths for running, cycling or a picnic.
Delicias gardens and the riverside
Between María Luisa Park and the Guadalquivir, nineteenth-century gardens and waterside promenades that connect with the river cycle lane.
Jardines del Valle
A quiet garden beside a stretch of the old city wall, near La Macarena, rarely visited by tourists.

Which park to choose

If you want…	Go to…
Architecture and garden together	María Luisa Park and Plaza de España
History and palace gardens	Real Alcázar gardens
A breather in the centre	Murillo gardens or Jardines del Valle
Running, cycling or a picnic	Alamillo Park and the river promenades
A plan with children	María Luisa Park or Alamillo Park

Parks and the heat

In summer, go early or lateBetween two and seven the heat is fierce even in the shade.
Bring waterThere are fountains, but not everywhere.
Check opening timesSome parks and gardens close at night and others have visiting hours.
The best seasonSpring, with orange blossom and jacarandas, and autumn.

A group cycling along the bike lane by the Guadalquivir, with the Torre del Oro in the distance

María’s guided route

Seville by bike

River, parks and the great spaces of 1929 linked by bike at a relaxed pace.

See the bike route

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

What is the most beautiful park in Seville?

María Luisa Park, next to Plaza de España: tiled arbours, ponds and century-old trees.

Are the Alcázar gardens free?

No. They are part of the Real Alcázar visit and you enter with its ticket.

Where can I run, cycle or have a picnic?

In Alamillo Park and along the riverside promenades, which connect with the cycle lane.

When is the best time to visit the parks?

In spring and autumn, at any time of day. In summer, early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Which park is best with children?

María Luisa Park, with its ponds, ducks and space to run, and Alamillo Park, with its large meadows. Both fit well into a family day in the city; see also our tours for families.