The routes through Almódovar’s Madrid, the Andalusia of Game of Thrones or Woody Allen’s New York have long been part of the cultural fetishism of the audiovisual, which invites us to step on the floors of fiction to make them perhaps more real. Seville serves as the setting for a good handful of series that we compile as a cinephile catalog.
There is no doubt that the main capitals take most of the shootings but it often happens that in the most remote places, and especially on the small screen, is where great successes are sunk. And that Seville rises as a muse for filming major film productions and series for television and platforms does not surprise anyone. A great set that adds new projects every year and also serves as a showcase to continue establishing ties with the audiovisual industry.
1. The Plague (2018 – 2019)
About the series, Alberto Rodríguez explained that “the most interesting thing about the series is to see the Seville of the 16th century trying to make all the fiction consistent with the thinking of that time and not of the 21st century. The characters behave as they would have in that era and we don’t judge them. They are the rules of a different time when things were organized differently. In a way, it’s a walk through history at street level”.
Specifically, the acclaimed Movistar+ series used the Real Alcázar as a mint but also as a private house for some nobles and noblemen. The same function was played, on Calle Cuna, by the Palacio de los Marqueses de la Motilla in the first season and as the house of the mayor or assistant of the city, in the second.
Carmona also served as the setting for this production. In the Sevillian town, Carlota Quintanilla Street was used to recreate the steps and tiers of the lower part of the cathedral with the slave markets. For its part, the hacienda ‘la Buzona’ was used as a market at the entrance to Seville. The Puerta de Sevilla, also in Carmona, served as a location for different accesses to the city. Finally, the interior of the hacienda Los Miradores gave life to different scenes of the Auto de Fe as well as public trials of the Inquisition.
📺 Movistar+
2. La otra mirada (2018 – 2019).
La otra mirada is not only a good series for its powerful, well-constructed female characters, a reflection of the education women received in the 1920s, but it also incorporates a suspenseful plot that manages to capture the viewer’s attention from the first chapter. This hybridization of genres, without losing the criticism of a male-dominated society, is achieved thanks to a team of screenwriters made up of Josep Cister, Jaime Vaca, María López Castaño, Alba Lucio Calderón and Mario Parra Ortiz.
La otra mirada, produced by Boomerang TV, is not a series in which Seville is a set that is used as an inexhaustible source of comedy and also bets on natural scenery. No chroma or studio. Among the most emblematic locations of the city featured in the series are Betis street and the Guadalquivir, the Triana bridge, the Santa Cruz neighborhood, the Giralda or the Real Alcazar.
In any case, the production starring Macarena García, Patricia López Arnáiz, Ana Wagener and Cecilia Freire also moved to different locations in the province. Thus, in the series we can see the beach of Las Mimbres in La Puebla del Río, the streets and some monuments of Utrera and the Colegio Mayor Santa María del Buen Aire, in Castilleja de Guzmán.
📺 RTVE Play | Prime Video
3. 1992
Álex de la Iglesia’s latest bet for Netflix has been 1992. In this case, however, Seville not only serves as a shooting location for one of the most controversial series of this year but also as a protagonist. Or at least one of its icons is, Curro, the mascot of Expo 92.
The series in question, which Álex de la Iglesia has created with Jorge Guerricaechevarría for Netflix stars Fernando Valdivielso (Fanático) and Marian Álvarez (La herida, La unidad), whose cast is completed by Paz Vega (Lucía y el sexo) and Carlos Santos (El hombre de las mil caras), among others.
📺 Netflix
4. El hijo zurdo (2023)
Six frenetic chapters make up the structure of this story narrated in Seville. The neighborhoods are in this production by Rafael Cobos with script by Alberto Rodríguez (adapted from the novel by Rosario Izquierdo) are also essential protagonists in this Seville-stamped release, one of the best series of 2023.
The premise is as follows: Lola (the character played by a magnetic María León) discovers her son missing at the police station and accused of participating in a brutal beating along with a group of skinheads. A seductive miniseries with an undeniable southern feel that is captured in all its details and especially in its locations.
El hijo zurdo shows the Seville of Polígono San Pablo, Carretera Amarilla and other neighborhoods such as San Diego and Macarena. But other iconic places of Seville also come into the picture: the Alamillo and Barqueta bridges, the Nervión Plaza shopping center, Plaza Otelo, Miraflores Park and Los Remedios. By the way, one of the scenes is shot in Seis Tapas Bar.
In short, a more realistic X-ray of this city that arouses so much interest for the small screen.
📺 Movistar+
5. Allí Abajo (2015 – 2019).
When the first season of Allí Abajo premiered, it had been a long time since a series had managed to bring together so many families in front of the TV. While the cast could only increase the reasons to attend the awaited audiovisual event, the fact that Seville was the main location also played its part. Contrary to what might be expected for a comedy, one of the peculiarities of the series is that it dispensed with a set in all its seasons.
The Palacio de Monsalves, located on the street of the same name, recreates the already symbolic Hospital Híspalis and the exteriors were shot at the Centro de Estudios Hispano-Americanos. The river is another of the enclaves that are repeated throughout the series and so is Santa Justa, the Jewish Quarter, the Triana Bridge or the Plaza de España.
Well-known spaces of the city but others not so much, alleys and bends that make us still hooked to the story of Iñaki and Carmen.
📺 A TRESplayer | Disney+
6. 4. Game of Thrones (2011 – 2019)
While it is true that the acclaimed HBO series has very well known scenarios beyond Seville, Seville agglutinates much of the filming sets.
Never before has a filming attracted so many curious people as this one. Since it was announced that HBO intended to shoot in Seville, thousands of people signed up for the casting to be able to appear in their favorite series. Most of the filming took place in the gardens of the Real Alcazar and in Osuna. The tronista craze reached a point where many Sevillians (and people from outside) took to the streets to look for the Targaryen girl and the Matarreyes and take a picture with them. This wave of fans was so big that there were even bars that took advantage of this pull to serve Lannister, Stark and Targaryen breakfasts. In the following articles we will describe location by location the filming of the series in Seville and Andalusia.
Escape to the Andalusia of Game of Thrones. Route through the scenery of Seville in Game of Thrones.📺 HBO
7. If I had known
Netflix launched in late October 2022 this adaptation of the series created by Turkish screenwriter Ece Yörenç starring Megan Montaner (30 Coins, The Hunt. Monteperdido), Miquel Fernández(Alba, The Knot) and Michel Noher(The Unit, 100 Days to Fall in Love). Si lo hubiera sabido is a Boomerang production for the popular streaming platform , scripted by Irma Correa under the direction of Liliana Bocanegra. It adds to the volume of series shot in Seville.
The premise is as follows: Emma is a 30-year-old woman trapped in her family routine and falls into the realization that, if she could go back to the past, maybe she would not marry Nando, so she weighs the possibility of getting divorced. A few days later, in the middle of a lunar eclipse, a temporal glitch sends her back 10 years and the opportunity to redirect her life and change her past decisions.
As in so many other series and creations of the big screen, Seville serves as the setting for this story where the viewer can walk with its characters through Triana, the Archivo de Indias, the Jardines de Murillo, the Plaza del Altozano or the iconic restaurant Maria Trifulca.
📺 Netflix
8. The Warrior Nun
Warrior Nun or The WarriorNun addresses the struggle between good and evil by a group of nuns who defend the faith and humanity. The threat of the devil is imminent and so is the presence of the city as a location.
The Baths of Doña María de Padilla in the Real Alcázar will serve as a necropolis and the Rectorate of the University of Seville, the monumental building that housed the Royal Tobacco Factory in the eighteenth century will offer its space for other disturbing scenes of one of the most ambitious series of its year.
Specifically, Simon Barry is the creator of The Warrior Nun based on Ben Dunn’s Warrior Nun Areala comic book. Seville is not the only muse for this Netflix production and Malaga and Cordoba are added as settings for this fantasy and action story. Almódovar del Río; the collegiate church, the Alcazar and the Torcal de Antequera; the Cathedral or La Térmica in Málaga; the streets of Marbella or the Niejo bridge in Ronda swell the list of spectacular locations.
📺 Netflix
9. The Crown (2016 – )
One of the successful series around the British royal family, The Crown, set its eyes on Seville as a location for several of its seasons. The Hotel Alfonso XIII simulated a Californian villa and San Juan de Aznalfarache served as a Greek town in the 1950s.
📺 Netflix
10. Malviviendo (2008 – 2014).
Including Malviviendo in this article is not cheating at all. Firstly because it is a classic, the most watched webseries in the world. Secondly, because it was indeed filmed throughout the province. And lastly, simply because we love it.
The series that catapulted David Sainz to fame was filmed mainly in Dos Hermanas, Montequinto and other neighboring towns, although Seville is glimpsed in some chapters. Recovering this production from time to time should be a must. Just like studying its iconic openings in the race.
📺 Youtube
11. Quart, the man from Rome (2007).
The writer Arturo Pérez Reverte had no special luck when Antena 3 adapted his novel La piel del tambor, in which a priest under Vatican orders is sent to Seville to investigate the theft of the Cross of Caravaca. The series had all the elements to succeed on the air: church-related mysteries, computer hackers, conspiracies and a love story in the style of Pájaro Espino.
Unfortunately, what could have had the success of a Dan Brown adaptation, passed by the network without success and was left without a second season. Perhaps part of its bad luck lies in the fact that although Seville was a key place in the series, it was barely seen beyond a couple of downtown streets and the interior of some historic building.
Bonus track: 12. Feria, the darkest light
Feria: the darkest light was one of Netflix’s proposed series, shot entirely in the province of Seville and Andalusia, in 2021. Carlos Moreno (Élite) and Agustín Martínez (from the literary triad behind Carmen Mola), are the creators of this eight-episode series. Direction is under the baton of Jorge Dorado and Carles Torrens.
The towns near Seville Zahara de la Sierra and Minas de Riotinto serve as the setting for this fictional plot set in the 1990s. Eva and Sofia will have to face the reality in which their parents are involved, disappeared and accused of a score of murders in a ritual.
📺 Netflix
Coming soon
13. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
The Walking Dead sequel about the character Daryl Dixon has already filmed its third season in Seville, although Seville has not been the only setting for this great production. It has also been filmed in Galicia, Catalonia, Aragon and the Valencian Community and can eventually be seen on Prime Video.
The locations in question have been the Parque de María Luisa, the Real Alcázar (January 29), the Casa Pilatos and the Palacio Marqués de la Montilla.
📺 Amazon Prime Video
14. Sherlock Holmes
Another bet of the Amazon Prime platform is the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ series. Guy Ritchie returns to this literary character after his film bet with Robert Downey. Jr and Jude Law and does so by filming in Jerez, Cadiz and Seville.
📺 Amazon Prime Video
15. Berlin, season 2
The ‘spin off’ of La casa de papel, one of the most watched series of the last 10 years, Berlin, will move the plot of the second season to Seville. Vancouver Media produces for Netflix this project around a heist that will take place in the city in charge of Berlin his gang.
The shooting, however, will transit through other cities such as Madrid or San Sebastian.
📺 Netflix