Carmona

 Carmona, less than 30 minutes drive from Seville, is a beautiful, historic, small town. It is the Spanish home of Michael Portillo, the TV rail traveller and ex-MP. His connection with Spain is a father who lectured at Salamanca university and fled to England at the time of the Spanish civil war. Disappointingly, Michael did not put in an appearance to show us round. 

We parked outside the old town in an  underground pay car park. Although there are several free parks, these are patrolled by self appointed parking attendants wearing official-looking high-viz jackets who demand money for parking, so you either pay up or risk damage to your vehicle. We’ve come across this at other places in Spain. 

Emerging from the car park, we see a lovely view of San Pedro church with its tower modelled on the Giralda tower in Seville.

Just beyond the church is the Puerta de Sevilla, the entrance to the old town. The gate is mainly original Roman structure through which the main road, the via Augusta, passed on its way to Cordoba.

It’s a double gate, and the next photo shows how massive and well fortified it was. Nothing, of course, is completely original as is see from the Moorish arches added later.

Just inside the gate, the old town is pleasantly laid out mainly in this style of building.

It’s a short walk to the central square, the Plaza de San Fernando. Folks from my generation will understand when I say that the last train is still expected here. The square contains some splendid Moorish style buildings  like the Casa de Cabildo, the old town hall.

Just beyond the square is the 14^th century church of Santa Maria la Mayor built over a mosque. The tower is thought to be adapted from the mosque’s minaret.

Inside, the church is beautifully proportioned, with marble tiled floors and sweeping arches.

he guide book tells us that the ornate panel over the alter is called a retablo, and can be illuminated by inserting a coin. We see that it’s already lit up so someone’s already activated the lights.

Leaving the church, we walked to the Cordoba Gate at the other end of the old town, from where the road sped on to Cordoba. It’s a fine old edifice, originally Roman but modified many times since. The latest modification appears to be stopping it from crumbling.

Onwards and upwards to Pedro’s Alcazar, a massive fortress that dominates the eastern side of the town. The fortress walls were badly damaged by an earthquake in 1504, but apparently never fully repaired.

Part of the decaying structure was saved by being converting into a parador. These are state-run hotels usually in ancient buildings that would otherwise have been lost to the ravages of time. So, we go  through this gate…

…and into the parador grounds.

Paradors operate at the higher end of the hotel market, but perhaps not luxury category. This one costs around £200 per night for a double room - well over a week’s campsite fees! 

One reputed gem we didn’t have time to visit was the Roman necropolis, half a mile out of town. We’ll look forward to seeing it another time, and  the town merits another visit.