Set on a low hill overlooking a fertile plain, CARMONA is a small, picturesque town made recognizable by the fifteenth-century tower of the Iglesia de San Pedro, built in imitation of the Giralda. The tower is the first thing you catch sight of and it sets a tone for the place - an appropriate one, since the town shares a similar history to Sevilla, less than 30km distant. It was an important Roman city (from which era it preserves a fascinating subterranean necropolis) and under the Moors was often governed by a brother of the Sevillan ruler. Later, Pedro the Cruel built a palace within its castle, which he used as a "provincial" royal residence.

 

The Iglesia de San Pedro (Tues-Sat 9.30am-2.30pm; ¬1.20) is a good place to start exploring the town; it dominates Carmona's main thoroughfare, c/San Pedro and has a splendid Baroque sagrario (sacristy) within. Buses stop just short of the church in the Paseo del Estatuto, from where, looking east, you get a view of the magnificent Moorish Puerta de Sevilla , a grand and fortified Roman gateway to the old town which now houses the turismo. The old town is circled by 4km of ancient walls, inside which narrow streets wind up past Mudéjar churches and Renaissance mansions. Follow c/Prim uphill to the Plaza San Fernando (or Plaza Mayor), modest in size but dominated by splendid Moorish-style buildings. Behind it there's a bustling fruit and vegetable market most mornings.

Close by to the east is Santa María la Mayor (Tues-Sat 9.30am-2.30pm, Sun & Mon service times; ¬1.20), a fine Gothic church built over the former main mosque, whose elegant patio it retains; like many of Carmona's churches it is capped by a Mudéjar tower, possibly utilizing part of the old minaret. Dominating the ridge of the town are the massive ruins of Pedro's Alcázar , destroyed by an earthquake in 1504 and now taken over by a remarkably tasteful but very expensive parador . To the left, beyond and below, the town comes to an abrupt and romantic halt at the Roman Puerta de Córdoba , from where the ancient Córdoba road (once the mighty Via Augusta heading north to Zaragoza and Gaul, now a dirt track) drops down to a vast plain.

The extraordinary Roman necropolis (guided tours: June-Sept Tues-Sat 9am-2pm; Oct-May Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; ¬1.50, free to EU citizens) lies on a low hill at the opposite end of Carmona; walking out of town from San Pedro take c/Enmedio, the middle street (parallel to the main Sevilla road) of three that leave the western end of the Paseo del Estatuto; follow this for about 450m. Here, amid the cypress trees, more than nine hundred family tombs dating from the second century BC to the fourth century AD can be found. Enclosed in subterranean chambers hewn from the rock, the tombs are often frescoed and contain a series of niches in which many of the funeral urns remain intact. Some of the larger tombs have vestibules with stone benches for funeral banquets, and several retain carved family emblems (one is of an elephant, perhaps symbolic of long life). Most spectacular is the Tumba de Servilia - a huge colonnaded temple with vaulted side chambers. Opposite is a partly excavated amphitheatre , though as yet it isn't included in the tour.