Setas de Sevilla: Seville Travel Guide (4.4★)

A wooden waffle over the old town

Look up from Calle Regina and the street just ends in a canopy. Six giant, lattice-like parasols rise from Plaza de la Encarnación and join overhead into one rippling roof. They are built from a grid of laminated timber panels, so the sky comes through in squares.

Officially it’s the Metropol Parasol, designed by the German architect Jürgen Mayer H. Sevillanos call it “las Setas”, the mushrooms, and the name stuck. It’s one of the largest timber structures in the world. Few buildings in the city split opinion more, which is part of the fun of standing under it.

Visitors use it on three levels:

• Underground: the Antiquarium, an archaeological museum
• Street level: the Mercado de la Encarnación, the neighbourhood food market
• On top: a raised plaza and a looping walkway along the crest of the parasols

Roman floors under the mushrooms

Start below ground. The square was meant to get an underground car park, but the digging turned up a whole layer of the city’s past. The structure was redesigned around it.

The Antiquarium keeps those ruins where they were found. You walk on raised paths above the remains of Roman houses, mosaic floors and fragments of Moorish-era buildings, with the excavated streets laid out below you. It’s dim, cool and much quieter than the rooftop. Most people rush through it, but it’s worth 20–30 minutes on its own.

Up on the walkway

Lifts from the lower level take you to the top. From there a path snakes across the crowns of the mushrooms, rising and dipping with the curves of the timber. In a few places it’s wide enough to lean on the railing and stay a while.

The view is all low rooftops, terracotta and white, with church towers poking through. The Giralda, the bell tower of Seville Cathedral, is the landmark to look for to the south. Up here you can see how tightly the Casco Antiguo is packed.

There’s very little shade on top. In a Seville summer the midday sun hits the walkway hard, so bring a hat and water from May to September. Give yourself 45–90 minutes for the whole visit if you include the Antiquarium.

Morning light, sunset or after dark

Timing matters here more than at most sights. BestTime’s forecast puts the quietest window at 10am–12pm, on both weekdays and weekends. The walkway is at its emptiest then, and the morning light is softer than the afternoon glare.

Try not to arrive on a weekend between 3pm and 11pm, the busiest stretch. Sunset is when everyone wants to be up top, so on Saturdays and Sundays expect a crowded rail. If you want golden hour, a weekday gives you a better chance of space.

At the moment it opens at 9:30am and closes at 11:45pm every day. Hours for landmarks like this change with the season and on holidays, so check the official site for this month’s times. After dark the old town is lit up below you and the timber glows under its own lights.

Getting to Plaza de la Encarnación

The Setas are in the northern part of the Casco Antiguo, so walking is the easiest way in. From Seville Cathedral it takes roughly 15 minutes north through the shopping streets around Calle Sierpes. From the Alameda de Hércules it’s a 10–15 minute walk south.

The Metrocentro tram stops at Plaza Nueva, about a 10-minute walk away. Taxis can drop you on the edge of the plaza. The streets around it are narrow and often busy, so a taxi rarely beats walking from anywhere central.

Tickets, the lift and the queue

Rooftop tickets are sold at the lower level, where the lifts also go up. That’s why you’ll see a line going down the stairs from the plaza instead of one at the top. The Antiquarium has its own entrance on the same level, and the market and the shaded plaza under the parasols are free to walk through.

• Book ahead on the official site at busy times. It’s also where the current price is posted.
• Pay by card at the ticket office or online, which is normal here.
• Keep your ticket until you’ve used the lift, since it’s checked before you go up.
• Bring a jacket at night outside summer, because the exposed walkway gets breezy.

The shade under the mushrooms is where people meet, sit on the benches and wait for friends. Come down from the roof and you’ll find the plaza working as an ordinary city square, not just a ticket line.

Around the Setas

The Mercado de la Encarnación is right under your feet. Its stalls of fish, meat and produce fill up with shoppers in the morning, which suits a 10am visit. Afterwards, these streets make easy wandering:

• Iglesia del Salvador: a big Baroque church about five minutes south, with tapas bars on the square outside
• Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuán: pedestrian shopping streets running towards Plaza Nueva
• Casa de Pilatos: a palace of tiled courtyards about ten minutes east
• Palacio de las Dueñas: the Alba family’s palace, a short walk north-east
• Calle Regina and Calle Feria: small shops and bars heading north towards the Alameda de Hércules

A good half-day plan: Antiquarium and walkway at opening time, the market straight after, then lunch near El Salvador before the afternoon heat sets in.