Palacio de San Telmo: Sailors, a French Prince and a Sad Song
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the long baroque palace and let your eyes climb its main doorway, a riot of carved columns, garlands and figures that seems to have far too much energy for a government building. High on top stands Saint Telmo, the patron saint of sailors, and that is your first clue.
Key Facts
| Place | Palacio de San Telmo: Sailors, a French Prince and a Sad Song |
|---|---|
| Address | Avenida de Roma s/n, 41004 Sevilla, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 37.38020, -5.99340 |
| Part of Walk | Opera City: Carmen, Figaro and Don Juan in Seville's Arenal |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the long baroque palace and let your eyes climb its main doorway, a riot of carved columns, garlands and figures that seems to have far too much energy for a government building. High on top stands Saint Telmo, the patron saint of sailors, and that is your first clue.
This palace was not built for princes. In 1682 work began here on a school for the orphaned sons of seafarers, paid for by the guild of mariners who sailed to the Indies. Boys taken off the streets learned mathematics, navigation and the stars, so that the fleets crossing the Atlantic would never run short of pilots. The flamboyant doorway was carved in the early eighteenth century under Leonardo de Figueroa, the great baroque architect of Seville.
In 1849 the building changed key completely. It was bought by the Duke of Montpensier, a French prince and the youngest son of King Louis-Philippe, and his wife, the Spanish Infanta Luisa Fernanda. They turned the sailors' school into a little court on the Guadalquivir, with balls, picture galleries and gardens stretching towards the river. Beaumarchais, whose play Mozart turned into The Marriage of Figaro, placed Count Almaviva's castle three leagues outside Seville. To picture that household of scheming servants and a sighing countess, an aristocratic palace like this one is the place to start.
The palace also gave Spain one of its saddest songs. The Montpensiers' daughter Mercedes grew up here and married her cousin, the young King Alfonso XII, for love, in January 1878. Five months later she was dead, aged eighteen. The whole country mourned, and children began singing a ballad that asks the king where he is going, so sad... Spanish children were still singing it in their playground games more than a century later.
Today San Telmo is the seat of the presidency of Andalusia's regional government, so most of the music inside is the murmur of meetings. The gardens the Montpensiers loved had a happier fate: the Infanta gave them to the city, and they grew into the Parque de María Luisa, just behind this palace. Now walk north to the busy roundabout with the fountain, where one of the city gates once stood.