“Mi infancia son recuerdos de un patio de Sevilla, / y un huerto claro donde madura el limonero”: my childhood is memories of a courtyard in Seville, and of a bright orchard where the lemon tree ripens. That courtyard in Antonio Machado’s poem is thought to be the one at the Palacio de las Dueñas, where the poet was born in 1875.

The palace is the Seville home of the dukes of Alba, open to visitors since 2016. Inside there is a sixteenth-century courtyard, four gardens and a collection of more than fourteen hundred pieces. On Monday afternoons entry is free, but only if you book on the website: once the places are gone, you will not be let in at the door.

Why was a poet born in the palace of the dukes of Alba?

From the Pineda houses to the dukes of Alba

Why is the palace called “of the Dueñas”?

After a neighbour that is no longer there: the convent of Santa María de las Dueñas, founded in 1251 and demolished in 1868.

The palace grew out of a group of houses belonging to the Pineda family. A seventeenth-century historian told how the Pinedas had sold them in 1483 to pay the ransom of a relative taken prisoner by the Moors in the war of Granada: it is a legend. The sale, to Catalina de Ribera, dates from 1496, and it was she who turned the houses into a Gothic and Mudéjar residence. In 1516 Alonso de León was commissioned to paint the frescoes in the galleries of the courtyard.

the entrance gateway of the palacio de las duenas on calle duenas, white and yellow, with a tiled coat of arms above the arch and the garden visible beyond the gate

On 9 February 1612 the heiress of the palace, Antonia Enríquez de Ribera, married the fourth Duke of Alba, and the house has belonged to the family ever since. The gateway you walk through, with the duke’s coat of arms, was built by the twelfth duke in 1771.

A palace divided into flats

In the nineteenth century the fifteenth Duke of Alba, who lived mostly abroad, divided the palace into flats and let it to a dozen families. One of them was the Machado family: that is why the poet was born in a ducal palace.

Restoration began around 1885 and continued throughout the twentieth century, under the seventeenth duke and then under Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the eighteenth duchess. For her this was the favourite of her houses: here she held the wedding lunch of 1947, here she remarried in 2011, and here she died in 2014. Two years later the nineteenth duke, Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, opened the palace to the public.

The main courtyard

It is the heart of the visit, and it has the shape of the Andalusian patio: a courtyard with galleries on two floors, palms and a fountain in the middle.

the main courtyard of the palacio de las duenas in seville, with the fountain in the middle, palms, hedges and yellow and white galleries on two floors

Look at the fountain: its tiles are by the Pulido brothers, from 1530-1540. The white marble columns came from a workshop in Genoa around 1540, and sixteenth-century tiles by the Pulidos also line the ceilings of the lower galleries. More early sixteenth-century tiles decorate the dados of the chapel.

the arches of the main courtyard of the palacio de las duenas seen from the gallery, with marble columns, stucco work and the courtyard garden

The rooms and the collection

What hangs on the walls of the dukes of Alba’s home?

Five centuries of family collecting, from Sofonisba Anguissola to Sorolla. In the Salón de la Gitana, the ballroom, stands Mariano Benlliure’s bronze Gitana flamenca, next to seventeenth-century Flemish tapestries. In the piano room hangs the portrait of the seventeenth duke painted by Joaquín Sorolla in 1908.

the salon de la gitana in the palacio de las duenas, with gilded armchairs, a table with statuettes and three arched windows with their grilles open onto the garden

And in the Salón Imperio, among the portraits of duchesses, there is a watercolour Jackie Kennedy painted during her visit in 1966, with a dedication to Cayetana: “Las Dueñas. Sala de estar de Eugenia que me encanta”.

The gardens and the Patio del Aceite

The palace covers 9,000 square metres, and there are four gardens. One is the Lemon Tree Garden, named after the tree in the poem.

the lemon tree garden of the palacio de las duenas, with trees, flower beds, a green ceramic pot and a path

The second courtyard is the Patio del Aceite, the Oil Courtyard, on the west side of the palace. It has a tiled fountain in the middle, remains of the fifteenth-century floor and, on its walls, frescoes like those in the main courtyard.

the patio del aceite of the palacio de las duenas, with a tiled fountain in the middle, round flower beds, palms and white and yellow galleries

Practical information

Details checked on 29 October 2026 on the official website, lasduenas.es. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you leave.

TicketsThe general visit with the audio guide costs 15 euros, the reduced ticket 11, the ticket for Seville residents 10; children under 6 go in free. The visit with the official guide costs 22 euros, lasts an hour, is given in Spanish and English and starts at 11:55. Tickets are non-refundable. On Tiqets you will find the Palacio de las Dueñas ticket with the audio guide app, at the same price as the official one.
Opening hoursFrom April to September the palace opens from 10:00 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:15. From October to March it opens from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:15. On 24 and 31 December and 5 January it closes at 15:00.
ClosuresIt is closed on 1 and 6 January and 25 December. On days when the wind is above 50 kilometres an hour it can close fully or in part, and the notice is given at the door: if it is windy, call +34 954 21 48 28 first, on weekdays during opening hours.
Free admissionOn Monday afternoons, on Mondays that are not public holidays, entry is free from 16:00 until last entry. The free ticket must be booked on the website, with a one-euro booking fee: once the places are gone, you cannot get in.
Getting thereThe address is Calle Dueñas 5, in the centre of Seville.
BookThe Palacio de las DueñasBook the Palacio de las DueñasAffiliate links

For the Mudéjar style of more than a century earlier, there is the palace of Pedro I, in the Real Alcázar. And on the same day you can see the cathedral with the Giralda. In Madrid the same family opens its official residence, the Liria Palace, to visitors.

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: the main courtyard, the arches of the courtyard and the Lemon Tree Garden, by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0; the entrance gateway, by Alonso de Mendoza, CC BY-SA 4.0; the Salón de la Gitana and the Patio del Aceite, by Jl FilpoC, CC BY-SA 4.0.