Top 10 tourist attractions in Spain

1

Plaza de España và Parque de María Luisa, Seville

Built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition to celebrate the regions of Spain, Plaza de España is an impressive semicircular pavilion surrounded by colonnades. Beautifully colored tiles representing each province of Spain are placed overlooking the long swimming pool, crossed by bridges. This is a popular place to visit for a stroll or paddle around the pool and under the bridges.

Plaza de España is the focal point of the large Parque de María Luisa, with gardens, lawns and a half-mile shaded boardwalk stretching along the river across from central Seville. You can rent a bicycle or go by horse-drawn carriage. Any day is busy, on Sunday the park is filled with families.

The best way to see the giant trees, flower beds, pools, gazebos and man-made rock formations with waterfalls is to stroll through the park, following the side paths into the fenced gardens. At the end of the park you'll find a small but rich archeology museum with Visigoth gem-encrusted crosses and ancient gold work.

2

Alhambra Gardens and Generalife, Granada

No matter how many articles you read or see in pictures of Granada's Alhambra palaces, this delightful Moorish palace will leave you in awe. The royal palace of the Nasrid dynasty was the artistic highlight of Spain's Islamic period, when Al-Andalus - as they called Andalucía - represented the epitome of culture and civilization in Europe. the Middle Ages.

The Alhambra complex includes a number of buildings, towers, walls, gardens, and mosques, but it is these indescribably intricate rock carvings, splendid carvings, magnificent tiled ceilings , the graceful arches and serene courtyards of Nasrid palace will haunt your dreams.

That said, the adjoining palace built for Emperor Charles V, even in its unfinished state, is the finest example of High Renaissance architecture in Spain. And the Generalife's terraced gardens offer visitors a peaceful respite from the grandeur and stunning views back to the rest of the Alhambra.

3

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia and Gaudi Sites

Antoni Gaudi took the architectural style known as Art Nouveau one step further, even, some argue, into absurdity. The fanciful and eerie buildings he created in Barcelona have become landmarks, the signature attraction of this Catalan city.

First of all is the Sagrada Família church, officially the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família or the Church of the Holy Family of the Atonement. One of Europe's most unique churches, it's also unfinished, so as you look down from its tower you can see work in progress below.

You may in vain search for absolutely straight lines in Gaudi's Casa Milà, his last and most famous secular work; it's more of a sculpture than a functional building. Be sure to climb to its roof - the chimneys are said to have inspired Darth Vader images from Star Wars.

New in 2020, the wonderful Casa Batlló, with its masked balcony and undulating facade, now features a vivid "10D Experience", using augmented reality, projection, binaural audio, motion sensors animations and more than 1,000 screens to take visitors on a journey into the mind and genius of Antoni Gaudi.

Parc Güell overlooks the city from a hillside, and the setting and gardens are surrounded by wondrous creatures – iguanas, fish, octopuses – and designed with brightly colored ceramic mosaics. A fanciful high-rise near the entrance is covered mostly with colored ceramics. Unlike most buildings, Gaudi attracts even children and adults who are not interested in architecture, for one simple reason - they are simply enjoyable to look at. 

4

Grand Mosque in Cordoba (Mezquita)

Once the main mosque of the Islamic West and still known as Mezquita, Cordoba's mosque is one of the largest in the world and the finest achievement of Moorish architecture in Spain. Dental. Despite subsequent changes that cut out its center to build a Catholic church at its centre, the Grand Mosque ranks alongside the Alhambra in Granada as one of the two finest examples. of Islamic art and architecture in Western Europe.

Building materials from Roman and Visigothic buildings were used in its construction, beginning in 785, and by 1000 it had grown to its present size, the prayer hall with no less than ten nine aisles. No matter where you stand or which direction you look, its columns and round Moorish arches line up in symmetrical patterns.

The streets are narrow and winding; small square; and low whitewashed houses with beautiful verandas visible from the street fill the quaint Juderia surrounding the mosque, a Moorish atmosphere inherited from its past.

5

Prado và Paseo del Artes, Madrid

Prado alone ranks with the world's top art museums for the richness of its collections. But add the Reina Sofia National Art Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the CaixaForum, along Madrid's mile-long tree-lined boulevard that is home to the world's highest concentration of priceless art treasures. No wonder this place is known as El Paseo del Arte - Avenue of the Arts.

After the 2007 expansion, doubling the exhibition space, Prado added another 12 galleries in 2009 to house a collection of works by Goya and other late 19th-century artists. Prado has the largest collection of Spanish art in the world, an impressive continuation from 12th-century medieval works through the avant-garde movement of the early 20th century, and is particularly noted for its works from the Spanish Golden Age by El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya.

But its wealth is not all Spanish; other highlights are medieval murals and murals, paintings by Flemish and Dutch artists (be sure to check out Hieronymous Bosch's fantasy world and works by Rubens and Brueghel) , and Italian art (Botticelli, Raphael, Correggio, Titian and Tintoretto).

Highlights of Reina Sofia's 20,000 impressive works are Picasso's Guernica and works by Miró, Dalí, Dubuffet, Braque, Serra, Calder and Magritte.