Calle Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro

Look up: from that niche a crowned king is watching you. This is Peter I of Castile, called the Cruel by some and the Just by others, who spent long periods at the Alcázar of Seville. The two streets that meet here, Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro (King Peter's Head) and Candilejo, owe their names to the legend you are about to hear.

1A duel by lamplight

Tradition says that one night the king, who liked to roam the city in disguise, fought a gentleman in this alley and killed him. Nobody saw a thing, except an old woman who leaned out of her window holding a small oil lamp, a «candil». She could not make out his face, but she recognised the attacker by one detail: his knees cracked when he walked, something everyone in Seville knew about the king.

The next day, Peter I promised that the culprit's head would be displayed at the scene of the crime. When he learned who the witness was and realised he had been found out, he kept his word in his own way: he had a head placed on the corner… his own, carved in stone.

«Candilejo» would recall the old woman's lamp; «Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro», the promise kept.

The versions vary: in some, the victim is a named nobleman and the witness is the woman's son. What is documented is that the effigy was already there in the 19th century: in 1839 the historian Félix González de León explained that the street took its name from the head placed on the corner.

2What to look for

• The king's figure in its niche above the corner.
• The Calle Candilejo sign: the street is so narrow you can almost touch both walls.
• The crown, which makes it clear this is no ordinary neighbour.