Alameda de Hércules: Two Pagan Heroes on Roman Columns
Why is it significant?
Stand between the two tall marble columns at the southern end of this long, tree-lined boulevard and tilt your head back. On top of one stands Hercules, club and all. On the other, Julius Caesar. Two pagan heroes, guarding the start of the most devout walk in Seville... and that is no accident.
Key Facts
| Place | Alameda de Hércules: Two Pagan Heroes on Roman Columns |
|---|---|
| Address | Alameda de Hércules, 41002 Sevilla, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 37.39740, -5.99440 |
| Part of Walk | The Macarena and the Almohad Walls: Seville's Barrio of Faith |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand between the two tall marble columns at the southern end of this long, tree-lined boulevard and tilt your head back. On top of one stands Hercules, club and all. On the other, Julius Caesar. Two pagan heroes, guarding the start of the most devout walk in Seville... and that is no accident.
The shafts are genuinely Roman. They come from an ancient temple in what is now Calle Mármoles, a few streets from the cathedral, where three of its columns still rise out of a sunken courtyard below the level of the modern pavement. In 1574 the king's governor of the city, the Count of Barajas, had two of them hauled across town and raised here, and sculptors of the same years carved the figures that crown them.
Why these two? Because Seville adored its own origin myth. Legend says Hercules founded the city and Julius Caesar ringed it with walls and towers, and the boast was once inscribed in verse over one of the old city gates. Putting the two heroes here told every arriving traveller that Seville was older than Christendom and as noble as Rome itself.
And the ground under your feet was once water. This was a marshy lagoon left behind by an old arm of the Guadalquivir, a reservoir of floods and fevers. Barajas drained it, planted rows of poplars and created what Sevillians proudly call one of the oldest public promenades in Europe. It has lived several lives since: aristocratic parade ground, then a rough quarter of taverns and brothels, a cradle of flamenco, where a statue of the great singer La Niña de los Peines now stands, and today a place of terraces and children's bicycles.
At the far northern end, two more columns carry lions; those were raised in 1764 and are not Roman at all. From here, the walk turns to a very different kind of devotion: the Seville of brotherhoods, cloistered nuns and the Virgin of the Macarena. Walk a little way up the Alameda, then turn right into Calle Peris Mencheta and follow it to where it meets Calle Feria.