Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo

Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free, funded by the Andalusian regional government, with guided visits at set times that must be joined rather than wandered around; the tour lasts about an hour and is the only way to see the painted chapels. It is given in Spanish, with English available by arrangement for groups. The monastery is in Santiponce, nine kilometres northwest of Seville, reached by city bus from Plaza de Armas in twenty-five minutes for the price of a normal fare.

Tours from Seville combine it with Italica, the Roman city next door where Trajan and Hadrian were born and where parts of a television series were filmed, and cost a moderate amount. Italica has its own cheap ticket. Nothing needs booking except group tours. The visit is free but numbers on each tour are limited, so arriving fifteen minutes before a departure is sensible in spring.

Visiting Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo: what to see

Alonso Perez de Guzman, the nobleman known as Guzman el Bueno for refusing to surrender Tarifa even when his son was held hostage, founded the monastery in 1301 and is buried in it. It passed to the Hieronymites, who covered the walls in the fifteenth century with murals in a Mudejar-Gothic manner, painted by Muslim and converted craftsmen, and those frescoes are the reason to come: dense patterned decoration with saints and heraldry, unlike anything else in Andalusia. The high altarpiece was carved by Juan Martinez Montanes between 1609 and 1613 and is among the finest Spanish Renaissance retables.

In the sixteenth century the community turned Protestant, translated the Bible into Spanish and fled; several were burned by the Inquisition in Seville, which is why the monastery has a place in the history of the Spanish Reformation. Two cloisters survive, one of the friars and one of the converts, and the tombs of Guzman el Bueno and his wife stand in the presbytery under carved canopies. The murals were whitewashed for centuries and rediscovered during restoration work in the twentieth century, which is why their colours are unusually fresh.

Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo opening hours and the best time to go

Open Tuesday to Sunday with a morning and a shorter afternoon session, closed Mondays and on some public holidays; visits run to a timetable posted at the gate. Seville is fiercely hot from June to September and Santiponce has no shade to speak of, which makes a morning visit the sensible one, followed by Italica while the light is still bearable. Spring is the best season.

Dress is informal. Photography without flash is allowed in most areas. Allow ninety minutes for the tour, half a day with Italica. The bus back to Seville runs every half hour and stops outside the monastery gate. Italica next door has a Roman amphitheatre for 25,000 and mosaic floors, and the two sites together make a straightforward morning from Seville.