Palacio de San Telmo

This grand Baroque palace beside the river was built from the late seventeenth century as a naval college training pilots for the transatlantic fleets. Its exuberant carved stone portal, dense with columns and allegorical figures, is a masterpiece of the ornate Sevillian style. Over the centuries the building served as a royal residence, a seminary, and now the seat of the Andalusian regional presidency. A colonnaded gallery of illustrious Sevillians adorns one facade, and formal gardens once attached to it survive nearby.