The gardens are an important part of the Alcázar. They are the city's oldest, and they have undergone major alterations that have transformed their original layout. The Alcazar was designed in the late Middle Ages with buildings from various periods, small landscaped courtyards, and large orchards. They were reformed in the 16th and early 17th centuries, preserving the concept of compartmentalised gardens with no connection between them, as well as the customary use of low fountains, tiles, and orange trees as a Muslim legacy.
These gardens' oranges are used to make the marmalade that Elizabeth II of England consumes.
After leaving the Gothic palace halls, you enter the so-called China garden. Myrtle hedges separate the flowerbeds. They have a false grapefruit tree planted in their yard. During the reign of Philip II in the 16th century, this garden was separated from the area of the Pond of Mercury.
The Mercury Pond
The Pool of Mercury was most likely built during the Moorish period as a storage and regulating element for the citadel's entire water supply.
A bronze statue of the Greek god Mercury from 1576, designed by Diego de Pesquera and cast by Bartolomé Morel, stands in the centre of this pool. The same authors created the railing that surrounds the pond, the figures of lions holding shields at its corners, and the 18 balls with pyramid-shaped tops that surround the pond.
Grutesque Image Gallery
In the Grutesque Gallery, there is a water organ known as the Fountain of Fame.
A 160-metre-long wall runs northwest-southeast through the gardens, dividing the green area into two distinct areas: the original gardens on one side and the former orchard area on the other, which was also converted into gardens at the end of the 19th century, with an abundance of orange and lemon trees.
This structure was inspired by an old Almohad wall from the 12th century, which served as a military and flood defence for the Tagarete River. In 1612, the architect Vermondo Resta transformed the wall into the current Gallery of Grotesques, which is decorated on one side. The ornamentation primarily consisted of lining the walls with courses of various stones, rendering and painting between the stones, and frescoes by Diego Esquivel depicting classical mythological scenes. This wall also has an upper gallery that can be visited and offers a beautiful view.
The Dance Garden
Mara Padilla's Baths These are housed in an underground chamber beneath the Crucero's courtyard. They can be reached via a passageway in the gardens.
Garden of the Dance is the main article.
The Garden of Dance is located down some stairs, next to the Mercury pond. This garden was designed in the 1570s. A passage leads to the Mara Padilla baths, which are vaulted passages from the 12th century.
The name derives from the presence of two statues representing a satyr and a dancing nymph on the two columns at the entrance in the 16th century. Jean Laurent photographed these statues in the nineteenth century, but they have since vanished.
A low fountain from the 16th century stands in the centre.
The Garden of Troy
The Grutesque gallery is crossed by the Privilege Gate.
This is a Mannerism-style courtyard. Vermondo Resta created a gallery on the south side with semicircular arches and grotesque details on the columns in 1606.
On the opposite side's first floor, there is a gallery with semicircular arches and Doric marble columns designed by Lorenzo de Oviedo in the second half of the 16th century. There was once a labyrinth here, but it was removed in 1599 and a new floor was installed. It was no longer known as the Labyrinth Garden after that, but as the "Garden of Troy."
A fountain with a marble bowl stands in the centre of the garden. Between 1675 and 1759, the fountain was installed.
Garden of La Galera
A semicircular arch connects this garden to the Trojan Garden, as does a staircase to a room in Pedro I's palace. It has four flowerbeds with different types of vegetation. A marble column commemorating Al-Mutamid bears an inscription.
The Garden of Flowers
A small rectangular pond sits in the centre.
136 The ruins of a small grotto built at the end of the 16th century now house a bust of Charles I.
The Prince's Garden
The Prince's Garden is located next to the Garden of Flowers. It gets its name from the fact that it is accessible from the Prince's room, where Prince John was born in the 15th century. The back façade was designed by Lorenzo de Oviedo in the 16th century. It has a ground floor gallery with marble columns supporting semicircular arches, a first floor with windows, and another row of columns and semicircular arches above that. This is Mannerism in action.
The garden is divided into four sections by hedges and features a fountain in the centre, which was built between 1760 and 1770.
The Ladies' Garden
The Garden of the Ladies was designed in 1526 for the wedding of Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, and it was expanded and redesigned in the early 17th century by Milanese architect Vermondo Resta in the direction of the former Alcoba vegetable garden. The Gallery of Grutesco, with its massive Fountain of Fame, borders the garden on the east. It is Spain's only remaining fountain of this style. It is an allegorical representation of fame, with a recently restored hydraulic mechanism. It generates musical notes in an organ's pipes every hour on the hour as water passes through them. Boxwood hedges were used to create Spanish heraldic coats of arms in the 18th century. The garden was designed as a large rectangle divided into eight compartments in the Vignola style, with myrtle and bonet hedges separating them. While the fountains on the side walks are small and close to the ground, the central fountain is massive and crowned by a bronze statue of Neptune in the style of Giovanni di Bologna.
Charles V Pavilion
The gardens' Charles V pavilion.
Juan Fernández built the Charles V Pavilion between 1543 and 1546.142 It has a square floor plan and is built in the Mudejar style. A hemispherical vault graces the interior. All of its interior and exterior walls, as well as its benches, are covered in 16th-century tiles created by Juan Polido and his father Diego Polido. Four porticoed galleries with semicircular arches supported by marble columns surround the exterior.
León's Cenador
In the 17th century, Diego Martn de Orejuela constructed two gazebos. The Ochavado arbour, which no longer exists, and the Lion Arbour, which has survived, were the two. Between 1644 and 1645, the Lion Arbour was constructed. A square-shaped room is accessible via a semicircular arch. The windows on the other three sides are set in ornamental ornamentation. A dome with tiles on the outside covers this room. In front of it is a fountain with an unknown origin lion.
The English Garden
The Marchena Gate.
Since the Almohad extension of the 12th century, which was made in the direction of the present-day Calle San Fernando, this area has been within the walls of the Alcazar. Until the twentieth century, this area was known as the huerta de la Alcoba, and it was an agricultural space of mediaeval origin. The current space, which is designed in the style of English gardens, was renovated in 1927.
This area was discovered with Roman, Visigothic, and three Almohad archaeological remains in 2008.
Marquis de la Vega-Garden Inclán's
The Marqués de la Vega-garden Inclán's is accessible from the China Garden. The China Garden is entered through the 15th-century Marchena Gate, which was relocated here in 1913 by the Alcázar's then-curator, the Marquis of Vega-Inclán. This Gothic doorway came from an abandoned palace of the Dukes of Arcos in the town of Marchena and was purchased by Alfonso XIII at an auction of goods belonging to the House of Osuna147.
This entire garden was designed at the turn of the twentieth century. It was the Retiro's former orchard, which stretched all the way to the nearby Paseo de Catalina de Ribera. It is now a garden of parallel and perpendicular streets with various plant species and fountains.
The Garden of Poets
It was designed by the then-curator, Joaqun Romero Murube, between 1956 and 1958. It has two large ponds and resembles a typical Sevillian garden, with Islamic, Renaissance, and Romantic influences.