Is this the way to a Murillo?

Calle Sierpes is a shop-lined pedestrian street which cuts through the heart of Seville. We’ve seen it bustling on a weekday when the shops are open, but still busy on a Sunday with people stepping out. It begins in Plaza San Fransisco, which once contained a monastery, but now the Ayuntamiento or Town Hall, it’s facade a riot of carved decoration.

We saw a plaque at number 65, once the royal prison where Cervantes was held …

… the small Capillata de San José tucked down a side street …

… and even surprisingly a tiled billboard for a 1924 Studebaker Special Six convertible, an example of painted tile art at its best.

In fact, we’ve seen a number of tiled panels all over the place, advertising everything from wine and tapas bars and even guns!

Continuing the art theme, our next stop was the Museo de Bellas Artes, where we browsed the art fair in the square outside first …

… before taking a tour of the mainly Spanish painting inside …

… arranged chronologically so with the Mediaeval rooms first.

We were especially looking for some works by Murillo who we’ve already discovered is a famous son of Seville and here are just two – the patron saints of the city, Justa and Rufina holding the Giralda between them …

… and this huge Immaculate Conception.

It would be far easier to repeat the museum guide and point out what masterpieces they are, but we didn’t think them anything special, so finding them just pretty, dreamy and soft focus we moved on.

The gallery was arranged around a courtyard, which offered pleasant punctuation to the paintings, but also teased us with the sunny day outside so our remaining visit was short.

Feeling in need of a sit down, the perfect solution seemed to be an hour’s boat trip along the Guadalquivir River. We boarded just beside the Torre del Oro, built by the Almohads in 1220 as part of the fortifications, and one of the few remaining Islamic structures. It was used store gold from the Americas, hence being called the tower of gold.