
Triana House Boutique Hotel
Kaleidoscopic casa
Tiles-for-miles Triana
What did you expect a hotel from the land of pericón-fluttering, skirt-swishing, castanet-chattering dances to be like? Beige? ¡Dios mío! In Seville's Triana House Boutique Hotel, designer Amaro Sánchez de Moya grabs you round the waist and twirls you through Andalusia in seven rooms with distinctive styles from all over – olive-tree wallpaper for grove-dotted Jaén, embossed gold-and-green leather walls for Córdoba, beach-hut stripes for coastal Huelva and the Alhambra-style azulejo tiles pretty much everywhere. Terracotta statues and busts watch over the serene courtyard and terrace, but otherwise this is velvets, brights, gold and more, more, more… Much like a flamenco, this less-is-’meh’ casa will leave you thrillingly dizzy.
Planes
Seville Airport is just a 30-minute drive from the hotel. The hotel can arrange transfers on request from €35 one-way.
Trains
Seville Santa Justa station is a 20-minute drive from the hotel; it has a direct route to Madrid, from which you can connect to major cities on Spain’s east coast. Transfers can be booked from €25 each way. For zipping about the city, the Plaza de Cuba Metro station is about a five-minute walk away; one stop will take you to Puerta Jerez, where the big-deal sightseeing is to be had.
Automobiles
Driving in Seville isn’t as straightforward a concept as it might seem – reaching central locations can be hard and citizens are more used to the frenetic pace of traffic here. But, it does make a good stop for a Spanish road trip, so if you need to park up some wheels, you can leave them at Parking Los Remedios a short walk away (for a charge), or they may be spaces on the street.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
Triana has carved out its own space in Seville – even when locals cross the Isabel II Bridge from the city centre to reach it they say they’re going to the neighbourhood as if travelling out of town. Indeed, it has its own unique features, especially the mostly blue-and-white (but in all hues under the Sevillan sun) azulejo tiles, which it’s famous for (Triana House Boutique Hotel itself was once a pottery school), a rainbow of buildings on Betis Street along the bank of the Guadalquivir River, doorways wafting out mournful song and live flamenco shows. Use the Church of Santa Ana’s gloriously tiled bell tower as ballast while navigating, and stop in to admire its Midas-touched altarpiece; and if you’ve brought a baby, allegedly having it baptised here will give it a fabulous singing voice for flamenco. If not, see the blessed professionals perform at the Triana Flamenco Theatre, where talents taught at the renowned Cristina Heeren Foundation do their flouncing and fanning thing five nights a week. And the Triana Ceramics Centre shows off its other proud tradition, delving into the history of the handicraft. There are plenty of china shops for you to rampage around afterwards, but if you like those at the hotel, you’ll need to travel a little further out to Salteras for La Cartuja Sevilla’s wares (or buy them online). The barrio has a long history too, which can be seen along San Jacinto Street, where there’s a decorous Dominican Order church from the 17th century; the Plaza del Altozano, home to the 1912 Murillo Pharmacy, important statuary and the eye-catchingly domed Carmen Chapel; and Pureza Street where the Virgen de la Esperanza resides in the Marineros Chapel – each Maundy Thursday she’s paraded through the streets to Seville Cathedral. Stroll along the riverside’s Our Lady of the O walk and you’ll come across the Castillo de San Jorge, which looks harmless enough now, but was the seat of the Spanish inquisition from the 15th to 18th centuries – we bet you didn’t expect that. The castle is now ruined but there’s a museum in its place and you can still see the dungeons. Revel in the sensory overload at the Mercado de Triana, which also has a cookery school and even a theatre; and cross over San Telmo bridge to wander Seville’s Old Town and the Barrio de Santa Cruz, and marvel at the Alcázar Palace and its La Giralda bell tower.













