Triana Bridge

You are standing on the Isabel II Bridge, which everyone calls Triana Bridge. On one side is Seville; on the other, the Triana district, which has always felt almost like a separate town, home to sailors, potters and flamenco artists.

1Seven centuries of a bridge of boats

For centuries there was no solid bridge here: the river was crossed on a bridge of boats, a line of vessels chained together and covered with planks. It already existed in Almohad times, and the Guadalquivir's floods wrecked it again and again.

2Iron from France

The present bridge was built between 1845 and 1852 to a design by French engineers Ferdinand Bernadet and Gustave Steinacher, who took their inspiration from a bridge in Paris. It opened in February 1852, named after Queen Isabel II. It is the oldest surviving bridge in Seville and the oldest iron bridge in Spain. In 1976 it was declared a historic-artistic monument.

Since 1977 the arches no longer carry the deck: a hidden modern structure does the work, and the arches have stayed on as a keepsake.

Across the river, beside the Triana market, stood the Castle of San Jorge, once the seat of the Inquisition. Today it is an interpretation centre.

3What to look for

• The iron rings decorating the arches, the bridge's signature.
• The little Carmen chapel by Aníbal González, completed in 1928 at the Triana end.
• The river view, with the Torre del Oro and the Giralda in the distance.