What are the best parks and gardens in Seville?

Parque de María Luisa (free, 34 hectares, adjacent to Plaza de España) is the main city park. The Alcázar gardens are the most beautiful formal gardens in Seville (included with palace ticket, free after 6pm Mon-Sat). Parque del Alamillo (north, across the river) is the largest and least crowded.

Parks and gardens in Seville 2026

Seville’s identity is often reduced to monuments — Alcázar, Cathedral, Giralda. But the city has an extraordinary number of green spaces, from formal Moorish gardens to sprawling urban parks, and understanding them changes how you spend your days, especially in the heat of spring and summer.

Parque de María Luisa: the main city park

Parque de María Luisa is Seville’s central urban park: 34 hectares of paths, fountains, formal gardens, and shaded walks between the Paseo de las Delicias and the Plaza de España. It was donated to the city in 1893 by Princess María Luisa of Bourbon and redesigned for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition by French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier.

What’s inside:

Glorieta de Bécquer: a romantic tree-shaded clearing with a ceramic fountain memorial to the Sevillian poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Prado de San Sebastián pond: popular for duck and swan feeding, particularly with children
Peacocks and deer: wander freely through parts of the park
Two museums: Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla (closed Monday) and Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares (ethnographic collection, closed Monday)
Several playgrounds for young children
Café/kiosk in the centre of the park

Hours: The park never formally closes, though the museums have standard hours (9am-8pm Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-3pm Sunday).

Cost: Free. Museums have separate admission (€1.50 EU citizens, €3 non-EU for Andalusian museums).

The most strategic use of María Luisa Park: arrive in early morning before the heat builds, walk to the Plaza de España for the rowboats, continue into the park for 1-2 hours, and finish at the Archaeological Museum (for Roman Seville artefacts from Italica, well worth seeing before visiting the ruins). Full guide at María Luisa Park guide.

Seville: 1-hour Guadalquivir river eco cruise — see the city from the water

Alcázar gardens: the finest formal gardens in Seville

The Real Alcázar gardens are one of the great surprises of Seville for visitors who go expecting just a palace. The garden complex covers approximately 7 hectares and contains multiple distinct spaces: the Mercury Garden (a large rectangular pool originally built as a water reservoir, now with a statue of the Roman god), the English Garden (a more natural, romantic space), the Garden of the Grotesque Gallery, and the Dance Garden with its orange trees and jasmine.

Highlights:

Mercury Pool: the oldest surviving garden element (16th century), peaceful in early morning
Garden of the Dance: aromatic with orange blossom in March-April
Grotesque Gallery: a long gallery of niches with shells, pebbles, and ceramic decoration
The maze (historic hedge labyrinth near the Lions Gate)
Peacocks and ducks at multiple points

Cost and hours: Included with the Alcázar entry ticket (€17.50 adults, children under 16 free). After 6pm Monday to Saturday, the gardens are free to enter separately through a garden entrance — this is the best free activity in central Seville. Evening in the Alcázar gardens in April, with jasmine and orange blossom in the air, is genuinely exceptional.

See the complete Real Alcázar guide for ticket logistics and palace highlights.

Parque del Alamillo: the biggest and least visited

Parque del Alamillo is a 100-hectare park on Isla de la Cartuja, north of the city centre, connected to Seville proper by the Puente del Alamillo. It was created for the 1992 Expo and is now the city’s largest park — and one of its quietest, with far fewer tourists than María Luisa.

Highlights:

Pine and eucalyptus forest: the most substantial woodland in the city
Extensive picnic areas: genuinely usable, with tables and shade
Children’s play areas and sports facilities (football pitches, tennis courts)
Guadalquivir riverside walking path on the western edge
Quiet in August when Sevillanos have left for the coast — the tourist crowd never discovers this park

Logistics: Best reached by bike (follow the Guadalquivir river path north from the city) or by bus (C1 bus from Prado de San Sebastián or Puerta de Jerez). About 3 km from the Alameda de Hércules. Combined well with a visit to the Cartuja district (Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, now housing a ceramics museum).

Jardines de Murillo: the Santa Cruz gardens

The Jardines de Murillo sit on the eastern wall of the Alcázar, separating the palace from the Barrio de Santa Cruz. Named after the Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born in Seville 1617), they are a modest but pleasant space: long walkways of orange trees, benches, a central fountain, and memorial statues. Good for a rest on a hot afternoon, particularly popular with locals in the evenings.

Free, always open. One of the better shaded walking routes through Santa Cruz — from the Jardines de Murillo you can access the heart of the barrio via Calle Mateos Gago without fighting through the main Cathedral tourist stream.

Jardines de la Buhaira: the Almohad pleasure gardens

The Jardines de la Buhaira are the least-known significant garden in Seville. They occupy the site of a 12th-century Almohad pleasure garden (buhaira means “small lake” in Arabic) built for the Almohad caliph. The original features — terraced garden, reflecting pool, ornamental channels — have been partially reconstructed based on archaeological evidence.

Location: Nervión neighbourhood, east of the historic centre (about 20 minutes’ walk from the Cathedral). Less convenient but worth combining with a visit to the Nervión area.

Hours: Generally open 8am to dusk. Free.

Practical notes for park visits

Best time of day: Early morning (before 10am) and late afternoon/evening (after 6pm) are the best times to visit any Seville outdoor space. Midday in summer (noon-4pm) is uncomfortably hot in any park with limited shade — the María Luisa Park’s shaded central alleys are the exception.

Cycling: The Guadalquivir river path runs through or adjacent to most parks listed above, connecting the city from the Parque de los Príncipes in the south to the Parque del Alamillo in the north. A bike (Sevici city bike scheme, approximately €1/hour, or rental shops throughout the city) is the best way to connect multiple parks in a single day.

Seville: 2-hour highlights bike tour — see the city’s parks and monuments by bike

Facilities: Most parks have public toilets (often requires a small coin), cafés/kiosks, and playgrounds. María Luisa Park has the most complete facilities. Parque del Alamillo has picnic infrastructure but limited food options — bring your own.

Dogs: All Seville parks are dog-friendly; most have designated off-lead areas. The parks are busiest on weekday evenings (local dog-walking hours, 6-8pm) and weekend mornings.