In olden days it was surrounded by a wall, some gates of which still remain like the Puerta de Córdoba and the Puerta de Sevilla. It is around this latter gate and the Alcazar de Abajo where the most interesting sights are to be found, left by the three cultures that lived together in this town. Originally a Cartagena outpost, Carmona later became an important Roman town through which Spain’s longest Roman road, the Vía Augusta, ran. From this period there is one of the most important archaeological sites of ancient Spain, comprising a necropolis, with mausoleums, sepulchral chambers and incinerators, and the Roman Amphitheatre, all dating from the first century BCE. With its Arab name and after the fall of the Cordoba Caliphate, it was capital of a splendid reign of taifas. The Alcazar de Arriba, built by the Almohads, has been converted into a state-run hotel, the Parador de Turismo, constructed around the Almohad Garrison Courtyard. Today it gives excellent views over the low-lying plains of the Guadalquivir.

Although it was brought under Christian rule as far back as the thirteenth century, Carmona’s streets still maintain a decidedly Islamic air.

The city boasts fine examples of religious architecture. Especially important is the Iglesia de Santa María, a Gothic church built over an old mosque, of which only the Patio de los Naranjos (Orange-Tree Courtyard) now remains. The Iglesia de San Felipe is one of the best examples of Mudejar architecture; inside, the church harbours a fine coffered ceiling, an altar front of sixteenth-century tiles and a seventeenth-century altarpiece. The Iglesia de San Pedro, built in the fifteenth century and reformed in the Baroque period, has an impressive bell-tower inspired on Seville’s famous Giralda and hence dubbed by many “el Giraldillo”. Other churches worth a visit are the fourteenth-century Iglesia de San Bartolomé and the Iglesia de San Salvador, a fine Baroque church built between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Carmona also has two important nunneries: the seventeenth-century Convento de las Descalzas, an interesting example of Seville Baroque, and the Mudejar-style Convento de Santa Clara, in whose presbytery hang some paintings by Valdés Leal.

As regards the town’s civil architecture special mention must go to the sixteenth-century Hospital de la Caridad, with a beautiful Mudejar chapter house. Splendid houses and mansions are also dotted around the town, showing a mixture of Mudejar, Renaissance and Baroque styles. The Plaza de San Fernando has a fine ensemble of buildings dating from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with Baroque palaces such as the Palacio de los Aguilar and the Palacio de los Rueda, the latter with a striking courtyard.