The Arenal Walking Tour - Paseando por Sevilla

					We will start from the centre of El Arenal, that open place, where numerous harbour works were produced in the most important port in the world during years. This centre is now occupied by the Real Maestranza Bullring, one of the most representative monuments in Seville in the XVIII and universally known. Before starting our walking tour, we will know the outside of the history of this building. From the entrance of the bullring, we will enter in Carreteria Zone.
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Such zone will suffer a singular development by the creation of the Bullring but its origin dates from the XV century. After the discovery of the New Wold and the creation of a great Spanish trade port in Seville, the two gilds of barrelmakers and cartwright's work will grow due to the numerous petitions of barrels and workshops to repair the carts in which the port trade were transported. The second of this activities will finish giving the name of this area that today it has changed its boat funtion. Walking along its streets, we will be able to see good examples of the regionalistic architecture of the beginning of the century, besides its bullfighting and religious taste. We will end in temprano street where we will feel with our imagination the continuous noisy that existed in this zone during the XVI and XVII centuries. We will pass in front of the Real Maestranza de Artilleria building, where the Reales Atarazanas by Alfonso X the Wiseman were situated, with the funtion of constructing ships of the Real Armada. The big archs of the Atarazanas are still contemplated inside of the abandoned militar building, and in the Charity Hospital. Our visit to the Charity Hospital will help us to know nearly one of the most important elements of the Sevillian Baroque and where the decisive intervention of D. Miguel de Mañara, Sevillian figure that for some people he was model for the famous character of D. Juan Tenorio. Inside the Hospital, we will contemplate marvellous sculptoric works, paintings by famous artists like Murillo, Valdés Leal or the sculptor Pedro Roldan. Delighted by the atmosphere, we will go out from the building to walk to other important zone of the Arenal: El Baratillo. Along this part of Arenal, we will visit the Miguel de Mañara Garden, near to Maestranza theatre; the Oil Postigo, the old access gate of the city; Cabildo square, always belonged to the cathedratic cleric; the old Bayona street, where Cervantes lived in a rich guest house during his stays in the city; the graet importance of Compàs de la Mancebía... During the XV century, in El Arenal an important trade of clothes of marineers and junks was developed, that is why it was named El Baratillo. The primitive market will help to the construction of houses outside the wall that will be the origin of this Arrabal, with important buildings and temples with rich brotherhoods. We will visit the Baratillo chapel, the see of the popular Piedad brotherhood, whose procession is Saint Wednesday. In the Baratillo, we will feel again the atmosphere and essence of the area: the brotherhood and the bullfighting. The proximity to the Real Maestranza bullring is perceived in the streets where we came across with bullfighting tickets, posters sellers the same as with the decoration of the tapa bars. In Casa Pepe-Hillo, the end of our walking tour, we will see this bullfighting atmosphere in the decoration of the building and the list of the tapas: "we have bull tail".

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Marineers, merchants, soldiers, monks, whores and others contemplated the human landscape of this place that was linked to small gilds related to boat activities and also guest houses, amusements and brothels appeared for the people. Predilected place due to its singularity for Cervantes, Quevedo or Lope de Vega, in where we find two universal images of Seville: The Golden Tower and the Maestranza Bullring. El Arenal is a bullfighting area par excellence. With the bullfighting, the religiosity of the brotherhoods and associations is highlighted in the Holy Week. El Arenal is without any doubt one of the Sevillian areas with more tradition. Its streets are full of art and life. The Route: