The history of the Alcázar can be explained through a wide catalog of films and series. And, for this reason, its current management team has selected some, 11 feature films and 13 series.
You can do the route on your own.
It begins at the access through the Patio de Banderas. There, at the Apeadero where some scenes from Carmen (2003) starring Paz Vega and Leonardo Sbaraglia take place.
At the Lion’s Gate they also formed the royal guard in the BBC historical series The White Princess. This and another also from the British channel, The Spanish Princess, in which Rossy de Palma played Isabel la Católica and walked through the Patio de la Montería.
A few meters away, the staircase that leads to the Upper Royal Room was the scene of the modern version of the Wizard of Oz, Esmerald City (2015).
The itinerary enters the Mudejar Palace, probably in the rooms that have seen the most filming of the monument.
The Patio de las Doncellas stars in famous stills from films such as The Wind and the Lion (1975), Reds (1978), the series Game of Thrones or The Life of Christopher Columbus (1916), the first filming in the monument. Or The Kingdom of Heaven (2005), by Ridley Scott.
A thousand and one anecdotes
Those who could tell the most anecdotes are the former gardeners of the Alcázar who have attended a thousand and one shootings, except for the one of ‘Game of Thrones’, where access was difficult, as well as the security personnel. After a curious anecdote, some of these vigilantes took a very funny photo with the actor who plays Jaime Lannister or the Kingslayer in the HBO series, the Danish Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. He decided one day to change the catering for the shoot for some tapas in the Santa Cruz neighborhood and when he wanted to return he got lost. Finally he found the Puerta del León and in order not to give himself away, discreet to rage, he chose to get in line and pay for his entrance as just another tourist and went completely unnoticed.
The Admiral’s Hall and the Ambassadors’ Hall are other favorite rooms for productions.
The cardboard-stone lamps of the Gothic Palace
The effect is so good that they decided to hang the papier-mâché lamps that were made as props for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The originals had been cast at the time of Napoleon’s invasion and were recreated based on a design by Rafael Manzano, then curator of the Alcázar. The warrior nun has left the perfect copy of a centuries-old door in the Hall of the Master.
We hope you enjoy our proposed route and this article will inspire you for your next visit to the Real Alcázar of Seville.
The route
1. Welcome (Halt)
2. Introduction: Origins of cinema and cinema in Seville.
3. Filming in the Real Alcázar of Seville;
Feature films:
-The life of Christopher Columbus (1916)
-The Woman and the Romper (1959)
-Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
-The Wind and the Lion (1975)
-Red (1978)
-1492 the conquest of paradise (1992)
-The Knight Don Quixote (2002)
-Carmen (2003)
-The Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
-The girl with oranges (2009)
-Night and day (Knight and day) (2010)
TV series
-If the stones could speak. TVE, various seasons.
-History of Spain. TVE, 2004.
-Secrets of History: Isabel la Católica, Antenne 2 (France), 2012.
-Secrets of History: Carlos V, Antenne 2 (France), 2013.
-Violetta. TV Group, September 2014.
-Game of Thrones. 5th season. HBO, October 2014.
-Game of Thrones. 6th season. HBO, October 2015.
-Emerald City, The Wizard of Oz. December 2015.
-The White Princess, BBC. October 2016.
-The Plague, Movistar +. November 2017.
-The Other Look. RTVE. February 2018
-The Spanish Princess, BBC. August 2018
-The Warrior Nun. Netflix, June 2019
There are official tourist guides who carry an iPad on their visits to show the stills from the Game of Thrones series, one of the productions that have given the Alcázar of Seville the most projection. Six years after the first filming at the monument, tourists, especially North Americans, have continued to arrive, asking about those scenarios that, although many ignore it, were already set more than a century ago. The Alcázar has hosted filming for more than a century. It was exactly 104 years ago that the movie The Life of Christopher Columbus (1916) was filmed in the same Patio de las Doncellas, one of the most international thanks to the big screen.
