Beautiful palace-house in Seville
The Casa de Salinas is one of the lesser-known palaces in Seville, but that doesn’t mean it’s not up to par with some of its more famous rivals. Having only been opened to the public recently, the Casa de Salinas has thankfully remained off the city’s main tourist trail meaning you can enjoy it’s quiet courtyards and stunning halls in peace. Visits are guided only (in English or Spanish) and cost around 6 euros per person, if I remember correctly.
First, you enter into a peaceful inner courtyard decorated with plateresque arches (a local style developed in Seville combining both Gothic and Mudejar influences). Then, the tour takes you through the main rooms on the ground floor, each complete with exquisite tile work and decorative Mudejar-style ceilings. My favorite part, however, was the final courtyard. Before the days of government-sponsored conservation efforts, it wasn’t unusual for persons of means to decorate their homes with historic works of art salvaged from nearby ruins. In the case of the Casa de Salinas, the courtyard features an entire Roman mosaic stripped from a Roman villa in the nearby ruins of Italica. The mosaic together with the creeping bougainvillea and the trickling fountains made it one of the more picturesque and memorable courtyards in our trip to Seville.
