Hi, I’m Carmen
Carmen Gavilán, a historian born and raised in Seville, who for some time has wanted to make known everything her city has to offer.
While studying a degree in History which I had wanted to do since I was little, I discovered the great historical, cultural and artistic wealth that the city in which I live had. A wealth that not even its own locals know.
After graduating History, a degree with (let’s be realistic) few professional opportunities, I started to work in (obviously) something that wasn’t related to ‘my field’ and so I decided that until I could dedicate myself to my passion, something which I hadn’t yet discovered, I would use my salary to travel round Europe. Which I did.
Travelling opened my mind and it changed my conception of tourism. I understood that to travel meant to learn and the people that show you the country are essential to your journey. And this is how I discovered my passion.
After a couple of years I started to direct my energy towards obtaining the Official Tourist Guide accreditation, so that I can show visitors and Sevillians everything that the city has to tell.
I hope you enjoy and learn Seville’s secrets from this page, and I hope you fall as much in love with it as I am.
I want to tell you the story of my city…
For the past few years, and above all in the last, Seville has been growing and opening up to the world at an extraordinary speed, being visited all the time by more people.
This means that now it has the opportunity to tell what has up until now has been silenced or trapped between university walls. And it’s a history that’s full of life, legends, art, mix of cultures and above all, of men and women which have left us their hidden legacies between the streets.
Whether you’re Sevillian or a tourist, you should know that Seville has thousands of spots apart from the heritidge known by everyone and recognised by UNESCO.
Getting to know the city of Seville is to make a journey through time, to the city which once was the capital of the world and the history of the people who lived here. Seville is a lot more than the beauty of the Giralda and the flavour of its tapas. Much more than the photos of the Golden Tower. And I want to tell you its true story.
Remembering who we are
Although few know, and many don’t even believe, Seville was the city which amazed travellers. It was called the ‘New Rome’. The Christian Monarchs and Arabs disputed their dominion, and so it was always a key city on the map. With the passing of cultures, whose combination has lain hidden, little by little its great past was forgotten until it turned into a little anecdotal city in the south of Spain, almost insignificant for Europe.
As such one of the aims of this page is to remind us what our city was through the traces of the civilisations which time has left us.
And now that so many people are interested in Seville, its also an opportunity for Sevillians to get to know our roots and our past and remember that we are the inheritor of a history still waiting to be discovered.