Must-see attractions in Andalucía

  • Alhambra columns around the Court of Lions

    Alhambra

    Granada

    The Alhambra is Granada’s – and Europe’s – love letter to Moorish culture. Set against the brooding Sierra Nevada peaks, this fortified palace started…

  • Moorish architecture of beautiful castle called Real Alcazar in Seville, Andalusia, Spain.

    Real Alcázar

    Catedral & Barrio de Santa Cruz

    A magnificent marriage of Christian and Mudéjar architecture, Seville’s royal palace complex is a breathtaking spectacle. The site, which was originally…

  • Cordoba, Spain. Interior of the mosque.

    Mezquita

    Córdoba

    It’s impossible to overemphasise the beauty of Córdoba’s great mosque, with its remarkably serene (despite tourist crowds) and spacious interior. One of…

  • Catedral y Giralda de Sevilla

    Catedral & Giralda

    Catedral & Barrio de Santa Cruz

    Seville’s showpiece church is awe-inspiring in its scale and majesty. The world’s largest Gothic cathedral, it was built between 1434 and 1517 over the…

  • buenavista palace which houses the picasso museum

    Museo Picasso Málaga

    Málaga

    This unmissable museum in the city of Picasso’s birth provides a solid overview of the great master and his work, although, surprisingly, it only came to…

  • Interior of Natural Cave in Andalusia, Spain

    Cueva de Nerja

    Nerja

    It’s hard to imagine the surreal world that lies beneath the mountain foothills 4km east of Nerja, and it’s even harder to believe that these vast caverns…

  • Punta Paloma

    Tarifa

    One of Andalucía's most fabulous beaches, Punta Paloma, 10km northwest of Tarifa, is famous for its huge blond sand dune. At its far western end, you can…

  • The Museum of Fine Arts of Seville or Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. @Oliverouge 3/Shutterstock

    Museo de Bellas Artes

    El Centro & El Arenal

    Housed in a grand Mannerist palace, the former Convento de la Merced, the Museo de Bellas Artes is one of Spain's premier art museums. Its collection of…

  • Mudejar Pavilion, Parque Maria Luisa, Seville

    Parque de María Luisa

    Parque de María Luisa & South of Centre

    A glorious oasis of green, the 34-hectare Parque de María Luisa is the perfect place to escape the noise and heat of the city, with duck ponds, landscaped…

  • Capilla Real, Royal Chapel, Granada, Spain.

    Capilla Real

    Granada

    The Royal Chapel is the last resting place of Spain’s Reyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs), Isabel I de Castilla (1451–1504) and Fernando II de Aragón …

  • View of Regina street. In the background the Metropol Parasol (by architect Jurgen Mayer H). Taken in the summer of 2018 Sevilla, Spain

    Metropol Parasol

    La Macarena & Alameda de Hércules

    The Metropol Parasol, known locally as Las Setas (The Mushrooms), is one of Seville's iconic modern landmarks. Built in 2011 to a design by German…

  • Catedral de la Asunción in Jaen, Spain.

    Catedral de la Asunción

    Andalucía

    Jaén's massive cathedral still dwarfs the rest of the city, especially when seen from the hilltop eyrie of Cerro de Santa Catalina. Its construction…

  • Malaga

    Catedral de Málaga

    Málaga

    Málaga’s elaborate cathedral was started in the 16th century on the site of the former mosque. Of the mosque, only the Patio de los Naranjos survives, a…

  • Sacra Capilla del Salvador

    Andalucía

    This famous chapel, built between 1536 and 1559, is the flagship of Úbeda Renaissance architecture. Commissioned by Francisco de los Cobos y Molina as his…

  • Alcazaba, Malaga, Andulucia, Spain

    Alcazaba

    Málaga

    No time to visit Granada’s Alhambra? Then Málaga’s Alcazaba can provide a taster. The entrance is beside the Roman theatre, from where a meandering path…

  • Inside the Gleaming Golden Basilica of San Juan de Dios.

    Basílica San Juan de Dios

    Granada

    Built between 1737 and 1759, this spectacular basilica unveils a blinding display of opulent baroque decor. Barely an inch of its interior lacks…

  • Seville - baroque cupola of church Hospital de los Venerables

    Hospital de los Venerables Sacerdotes

    Catedral & Barrio de Santa Cruz

    This gem of a museum, housed in a former hospice for priests, is one of Seville’s most rewarding. The artistic highlight is the Focus-Abengoa Foundation’s…

  • Mosque of Almonaster la Real, in the province of Huelva, Andalusia.

    Mezquita

    Andalucía

    Dating to the 9th and 10th centuries, this rare jewel of a mezquita (mosque) perches a five-minute walk above Almonaster's main square. The almost…

  • Inside the Assumption church (Iglesia de la Asuncion) in Priego de Cordoba.

    Parroquia de la Asunción

    Andalucía

    On the edge of the Barrio de La Villa, this church represents a high point in Andalucian baroque chiefly thanks to its wonderful Sagrario (Sacristy),…

  • The Gruta de las Maravillas cave in Aracena.

    Gruta de las Maravillas

    Andalucía

    Beneath Aracena's castle hill is a web of caves and tunnels carved from the karstic topography. An extraordinary 1.2km, 50-minute loop takes you through…

  • Spain Square (Plaza de Espana), Seville, Spain, built on 1928, it is one example of the Regionalism Architecture mixing Renaissance and Moorish styles.

    Plaza de España

    Parque de María Luisa & South of Centre

    This bombastic plaza, designed by architect Aníbal González in the Parque de María Luisa, was the most extravagant of the building projects completed for…

  • The Palacio de Benamejí hosts the Museo Histórico Municipal de Écija.

    Museo Histórico Municipal

    Sevilla Province

    Écija's history museum, housed in the 18th-century Palacio de Benamejí, is an authentic gem. It has rooms dedicated to the area's prehistory and…

  • Aerial view of Mosul beach at Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park, Almeria, Andalusia, Spain.

    Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata-Níjar

    Costa de Almería

    Boasting glorious beaches, vertiginous cliffs and a semi-desert hinterland, this 340-sq-km park occupies Andalucía’s southeastern corner. It’s a wild…

  • Alcazaba

    Almería

    A looming fortification with great curtain-like walls rising from the cliffs, Almerìa's Alcazaba was founded in the mid-10th century and went on to become…

  • Tasting room in Bodega Tradicion, Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain.

    Bodegas Tradición

    Jerez de la Frontera

    An intriguing, evocative bodega, not only for its extra-aged sherries (at least 20, mostly 30 years old) but also because it houses the Colección Joaquín…

  • Courtyard garden of Viana Palace in Cordoba, Andalusia. Built in XV century. Viana Palace is a tourist attraction known for its 12 magnificent patios and gardens.

    Palacio de Viana

    Córdoba

    A stunning Renaissance palace with 12 beautiful, plant-filled patios, the Viana Palace is a particular delight to visit in spring. Occupied by the…

  • View of the San Pedro cove in the Natural park of Nijar-Cabo de Gata, Almeria, Spain.

    Playa San Pedro

    Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata-Níjar

    Set between dramatic headlands 3km northeast of Las Negras, this sandy hideaway is the holy grail of the park's numerous beaches. The 250m-long playa,…

  • Playa de Monsul beach at Cabo de Gata.

    Playa de Mónsul

    Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata-Níjar

    The most celebrated of the playas off the San José beach road, Playa de Mónsul is a fabulous sandy wedge hemmed in by sharply eroded lava rocks and a…

  • Dunes of the beaches of Valdevaqueros de Tarifa in Cádiz, Spain.

    Playa de Valdevaqueros

    Tarifa

    Sprawling between 7km and 10km northwest of Tarifa, to the great white dune at Punta Paloma, Valdevaqueros is one of Tarifa's most popular kitesurfing…

  • Antequera Dolmens Site

    Antequera

    Antequera's two earth-covered burial mounds – the Dolmen de Menga and the Dolmen de Viera – were built out of megalithic stones by Bronze Age people…

  • Castillo de Santa Catalina

    Andalucía

    High above the city, atop cliff-girt Cerro de Santa Catalina, this fortress's near-impregnable position is what made Jaén important during the Muslim and…

  • Catedral de la Encarnación

    Almería

    Almería’s formidable, six-towered cathedral, begun in 1525, was conceived both as a place of worship and a refuge for the population from frequent pirate…

  • Itálica

    Sevilla Province

    The ruins of ancient Itálica, the first Roman city founded on the Iberian Peninsula, are extensive and, in parts, quite spectacular. Broad paved streets…

  • Cuevas de Sorbas

    Andalucía

    These rare and spectacular caves, 2km east of Sorbas, are part of a vast network of underground galleries and tunnels. Guided visits lead through the…

  • Castillo de La Iruela

    Andalucía

    In a stunningly picturesque and panoramic perch on a rocky pinnacle towering over pretty La Iruela village, this ancient fortification is well worth the…

  • Necrópolis Romana

    Sevilla Province

    This ancient Roman necropolis is one of the most important of its kind in Andalucía. The site, which is slightly let down by a lack of signage, contains…

  • La Geoda de Pulpí

    Andalucía

    In 2019 the world's second-largest geode opened to the public in northeastern Almería's Sierra del Aguilón. Measuring an astounding 8m long by 2m tall,…

  • Colegiata de Santa María de la Asunción

    Sevilla Province

    Lording it over the town, this formidable Renaissance structure – two churches above a crypt – sits on the site of the town's medieval parish church. It…

  • Ruins of medieval Arabic palace with columns and arched doors. Cordoba Medina Azahara.

    Medina Azahara

    Córdoba

    Eight kilometres west of Córdoba stands what's left of Medina Azahara, the sumptuous palace-city built by Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III in the 10th century…

  • Medieval 'Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos'

    Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos

    Córdoba

    Built under Castilian rule in the 13th and 14th centuries on the remains of a Moorish predecessor, this fort-cum-palace was where the Catholic Monarchs,…