Casa de Pilatos

Before you is the gateway of the Casa de Pilatos, one of Seville's most beautiful palaces. Its name is something of a puzzle: what is Pontius Pilate doing in an Andalusian palace?

1A marquis bound for Jerusalem

The story begins in 1483, when Pedro Enríquez and Catalina de Ribera bought the first houses on this site. Their son, Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, first Marquis of Tarifa, set off in 1518 on a long journey through Italy and the Holy Land, returning to Seville in October 1520. Look at the three crosses crowning the gateway: an inscription records that the marquis «entered Jerusalem» on 4 August 1519.

2Seville's Way of the Cross

On his return, the marquis founded a Way of the Cross that ran from his palace to the little shrine of the Cruz del Campo, outside the city. That is where the best-known tradition comes from: in Jerusalem he supposedly measured the distance from Pilate's praetorium to Calvary and found it matched the distance from his house to the Cruz del Campo.

The house is no copy of Pilate's: the name grew out of that devotion and appears in documents from the 18th century.

The marble gateway was ordered from Genoa, from Antonio María Aprile da Carona; commissioned in 1529, it was set in place in 1533. Inside, courtyards lined with Triana tiles, mixing Mudéjar and Renaissance styles, have drawn film crews for «Lawrence of Arabia» and «Kingdom of Heaven».

3What to look for

• The three Jerusalem crosses above the gateway.
• The inscription recalling the marquis's entry into Jerusalem.
• The statue of Zurbarán in the middle of the square, a tribute to the painter who worked in Seville.