Archive for 'Unesco World Heritage Sites in Spain'

Seville is an incredibly beautiful city in the Spanish region of Andalusia that boasts an incredible amount of architectural gems, stunning attractions and things to see and do. A romantic and charming place, steeped in history and culture and photogenic spots around every corner, it is an ideal holiday destination. Once you find a perfect vacation in Seville, you'll find endless reasons to fall in love with the city. However, we have been listing just ten of them and here are the final entries into this selection...

7. Seville Cathedral

Seville's incredible cathedral, Santa Maria de la Sede, is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Built from 1401 to 1506, it is ornate, massive and utterly glorious and awe-inspiring. It is said that when the plans for the building, the aim of those involved was to “build a church so beautiful and so magnificent that those who see it finished will think we are mad”.

Seville is the capital of the region of Andalusia, the third largest city in the entire country, which is famous for flamenco dancing, its ornate and rich architectural landscape (particularly its great monuments such as the Cathedral), and its lushness. One of the most beloved tourist destinations in Spain, it is a magical place that will make you fall utterly in love. Just find your perfect vacation rental in Seville and come see it with your own eyes to discover why people adore it so. Here are just ten of the most amazing attractions you'll come across...

1. Real Alcázar

One of the most beautiful palaces in the entire world, the Alcázar of Seville is a royal palace that was originally developed by Moorish Muslim kings and one of the most outstanding examples of mudéjar architecture. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe. While older buildings existed on the site in the past, the current palace structure largely dates to the 12th and 13th centuries.

The Modernista Sant Pau Complex is a hospital building in Barcelona that was built between 1905 and 1930 and designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner as a garden city for nursing the sick.

It was used as a public hospital for a century and has been recently refurbished and repurposed as a knowledge campus and the headquarters of international organisations including the European Forest Institute, the Casa Àsia, the Global University Network for Innovation, and the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility.

A stunning art-nouveau architectural complex that was awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1997, it is a beautiful place to visit, wander and in which to take pictures. If you have found a vacation rental in Barcelona and are looking to visit an attraction that is a little off the beaten tourist track, or you are an architecture aficionado, it is a must-see.

Spain is home to a rather large number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with 37 cultural objects among their number from walled cities to Mudejar palaces. One of the loveliest entries on this list has to be the two Renaissance cities of Úbeda and Baeza. Both are unique examples of such urban designs in Spain, where the imported Italian Renaissance stylistic influences are visible throughout in the city's churches, palaces and other buildings. Beautiful, intricate and fascinating, these two photogenic gems are the perfect, peaceful spots for history buffs and architecture fans to spend a day wandering and taking it all in. Just find a vacation rental in Andalusia and explore these fairytale cities for yourself.

Úbeda and Baeza are located at the heart of the province of Jaén in Andalusia and date to a period in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the cities were subject to renovation influenced by the emerging Italian Renaissance.

Looking like a fantastical town plucked right from the pages of Lord Of The Rings, Ronda is Malaga's most extraordinary town. Perched in a rather dramatic location on a plateau dotted by lush river valleys and bisected by the 100m fissure of El Tajo gorge, it is named for the fact that it is ‘surrounded’ by mountains. One of Spain's oldest towns, with Neolithic origins, it was first declared a city by Julius Caesar, though it didn't really begin to take shape until the 4th century AD. However, the appearance as it exists today owes itself to the period of Islamic rule and features mosques and palaces with distinctive ogives and other key architectural details of the period.