Seville breaks records for tourists every season. Its pleasant temperature, its increasingly rich cultural agenda, its establishments, gastronomic offer and its atmosphere, together with its rich historical heritage, make the capital of Seville one of the favourite places for travellers not only to spend a weekend, but also to be chosen for longer stays. Of the entire city, its Historic Center is the most visited and enjoyed place. And of all the neighborhoods that make up its center, Encarnación and Alfalfa are at its top of demands.
The neighborhood of La Encarnación, which we talk about today in this blog post, went in a few years from being a decadent and depressed place in the center of Seville to one of the coolest and most avant-garde areas of the city. All the trendy businesses and establishments want to be in this place. And the best thing is that in the neighborhood there is also room for tradition and historical places. Everything fits perfectly.
And as it could not be otherwise, two of the tourist apartment buildings of Singular Apartments are located in this area. We are referring to the Singular Metropol building and the Singular Siete Revueltas. Comfort and modernity just a stone’s throw from the most important monuments of the Seville capital.
The ‘fault’ of the Encarnación boom was the construction of the Metropol Parasol, or ‘Las Setas’ of Seville -as the Sevillians colloquially call it due to its appearance-, a gigantic structure of wood and concrete that presides over the Plaza de la Encarnación and that caused great controversy during the years of its construction. Even so, since its inauguration in March 2011, it has only been gaining followers from both outside and inside the city. Later, and in another post about things to do and see in the Encarnación neighborhood and surroundings, we will talk in more depth about this complex that includes an archaeological museum -the Antiquarium-, a food market and several gastronomic establishments, as well as a viewpoint.
Now we are going to detail a series of places and give you useful information about this neighborhood that any traveler would appreciate. Something like a series of indications that serve to orient yourself and be able to have all the basic services at hand. As suitcases are usually always smaller than we would like and we cannot take the house with us in our luggage, here is a list of places to take into account in case we forget something, or simply so that you can feel that you are in your own neighborhood.
Useful sites in the Incarnation
- Supermarkets or small shops: being such a central place, it does not have large supermarkets. But it does with small franchises of the large food chains and other groceries or neighborhood stores. The closest are the Supersol in the Plaza de la Alfalfa and the one in the Plaza de Zurbarán, the Carrefour Express in La Campana or Matahacas street, the Más in Cuesta del Rosario or El Jamón in Jerónimo Hernández street. As grocery stores you can find La Abacería, the Boutique del Jamón or Mensal, in the Plaza de la Encarnación; La Extremeña on Calle Alhóndiga or Joaquín’s small establishment, with cold beer and a little bit of everything. For emergencies.
- Food market. An essential in the Encarnación, since always, has been its food market. Previously located in another corner of the Plaza, its new location is none other than the ground floor of the Metropol Parasol. With 40 stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and other items, it is the oldest market in Seville. Or, at least, the original, which dates from 1842, the date on which the old Mercado de la Encarnación was inaugurated, the origin of the current one that was built on the place where a medieval convent known as the Convent of the Incarnation had been located. It is open from Monday to Saturday from 08.00 to 15.00 and is surrounded by bars, terraces and other establishments.
- Pharmacies. This is one of the pieces of information that every traveler would want to know. In the same Plaza de la Encarnación are the Rosario Pérez Solano Pharmacy and the Fernández de Peñaranda Pharmacy. In the nearby José Gestoso street there is the Soto Díaz María Isabel Pharmacy, in Puente y Pellón the Carrasco García Patricia Pharmacy and in the Alfalfa, the Alfalfa Pharmacy, to highlight a few.
Means of transport
The Encarnación neighbourhood is the epicentre of the centre. So, if you stay in this area, you can walk to all the other areas of the historic center. What’s more, we recommend you go for a walk to savour the city. But to move to other places or to go from other places to the Encarnación we leave you a list of the means of transport:
- City buses are the best option. During daytime hours they are operational from 06.00 to 23.00 hours. During the night there are 9 lines that have daily departures from the center of Seville (from the Prado station in San Sebastian) from 00:00 to 02:00 on weekdays and until 05:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. The lines that pass through the Encarnación area are all those that reach the Plaza del Duque or the nearby Ponce de León (lines 1, 10, 27, 32, 24, 20, 13, 14).
- The nearest metro stop is Puerta de Jerez (Line 1). You also have the option of the tram that stops at Calle San Fernando or Avenida de la Constitución (closest places in the neighborhood).
- Seville is made to be toured by bicycle, so if you like to pedal this is the best option. Sevici bikes are available for hire, with stops throughout the centre. The electric scooters of the companies Lime and Bird or the electric motorcycles of Acciona and Muving have also arrived in Seville. Electric bicycles are also available. All of them work with their own app just like Uber or Cabify VTCs. There is also a taxi service, with stops on Calle Imágen, Ponce de León, Calle Laraña and the surrounding area.
- Our service provider, Cohosting, offers you the alternative of renting a vehicle for longer journeys.
Places of interest
As we have already insisted, the Incarnation is full of new places to discover, along with monuments and historical places. Here is our recommendation of those that should not be missed, although we will talk about this, and the leisure and gastronomic section, in another post.
- Metropol Parasol. Since it was inaugurated on March 27, 2011, it has become one of his most photographed images. The spectacular views of the city that can be seen from its viewpoint (and even more so if you go up at sunset) and the Roman remains that it houses in its basement, in what has now become the Antiquarium of Seville -an archaeological museum that can be visited-, have made this avant-garde construction one of the essential places in the city of Seville.
- Palacio de las Dueñas.
- Municipal newspaper library of Seville.
- Church of San Pedro.
- Church of the Annunciation.
- The Soho Benita or Soho Sevillano area: a confluence with a dozen streets around Benito Pérez Galdós street, which began to take shape around the same time that the Metropol Parasol was inaugurated. The area, nestled between the neighborhoods of La Encarnación, San Pedro and La Alfalfa, is full of trendy businesses and shops, which have even appeared in the pages of the ‘New York Times’.
- One of the most important streets in the aforementioned area is Regina Street. If there is an example of a decadent area revitalized by business, it is this one. It has been a fashionable street for almost 10 years now that is promoted under the name of Regina Market. Just a few meters, but full of life. The famous bookshop-bar ‘Un gato en bicicleta’ was born there – now in nearby Pérez Galdós or the clothing store ‘La Seta Coqueta’ (also now in Pérez Galdós). There you can visit the exquisite establishments Dulces Regina, La Cacharrería, La linterna Ciega, the Italian food store Piaceri Italiani, the organic food store Bien Bio and La Despensa Ecológica, among others.
- Regina Street is a link between the Encarnación area and another very important area of the Seville capital, the Alameda, through the peculiar and traditional Feria Street. Between them, Jerónimo Hernández Street and Plaza de San Juan de la Palma, also worth visiting. But Calle Feria has its own charm. Full of old businesses such as basketry and wooden furniture shops, it has also been populated with gastrobars. We cannot miss its food market and its monuments. We already talked about them in ‘Everything you need to know if you stay a few days near the Alameda de Hércules’ and in ‘Gastronomic and leisure route through the Alameda’.
- On the opposite side of the Plaza de la Encarnación to that of Regina Street is another of the most important arteries of the center, commercially speaking. This is Puente y Pellón street, where our Singular Metropol building is located. Full of small businesses, low-cost clothing stores, and the occasional grocery, it connects the Encarnación with the Plaza del Pan and the Plaza del Salvador. On this street they say that you can eat the best churros in the center of Seville. We are talking about those of the Bar El Comercio, run by the Rivera family since 1904.
Leisure and gastronomy
Precisely in the area known as Soho Benita you can find restaurants, bookshops, fashion establishments, architecture and design studios, as well as an art gallery and jewellery workshops. Why Soho Benita? Benita is the feminized name of the playwright and chronicler Benito Pérez Galdós, the main artery of the area and for the idea of being “a vein” of avant-garde and underground businesses. An unbeatable environment for our tourist apartments in this area of the city.
Some of the places in the area that we like:
- Regina Sweets
- Café Bar La Centuria
- The Pottery
- Intruder
- Gastrobars Perroviejo and Perrochiko
- The Delimbo Art Gallery
- The Isadora store
- Artefactum
- The Importer
- Virgin Coffee
- La Gorda de las Setas
- The Blind Flashlight
- Takumi
- The Jerónima