Spain

  The Alhambra, Granada's hilltop crown of palaces, is open for evening as well as day visits—and both are spectacular. In this night scene, the fountain that gives this court its name is barely visible behind the bush, the open sky above...

  Seville, Spain is the namesake of one of the most famous oranges, and the oranges are everywhere. Orange trees are common in parks and along streets, and there are often fallen oranges underfoot.   Walking the streets and seeing all these...

The Banco de Espana building in Madrid had Gumbo’s attention when he was taking the puzzle picture, and what caught him was the stark difference in sculptural decoration in the picture—but the building as a whole is worth a look, too. It...

  Girona, Spain is an ancient city northeast of Barcelona, with a fascinating medieval core and a walker's treasure: The Passeig de la Muralla. The old city walls are among the most complete and best-preserved in Spain, and have been turned into...

The Plaza Mayor is the largest open space (other than parks) in Central Madrid. It's a major tourist attraction, a place for cafes and shops that range from traditional to chic and has served for hundreds of years as a place for public gatherings,...

Being perpetually surrounded by the ordinary things of everyday life made me a bit unprepared for the reaction I had when I experienced my first man-made marvel. Never had I felt in awe of the “genius” behind a calculator, or the...

  Visitors on the campus of Barcelona's pioneering Sant Pau Hospital, built at the turn of the 20th century under the direction of architect Lluis Domenech i Montaner, who worked to make the hospital not only beautiful, but functional and safe...

No, not a king's arboretum, or the Budapest palm house. And not in the Mid-Atlantic region. PortMoresby came closest when she suggested an airport, possibly in southern Spain. It's actually the main long-distance waiting room of Madrid's Atocha...

  Now a restaurant, this late 19th-century example of Moderniste style was built as a convent for straying young women of Barcelona's wealthy industrialist class. It's on Tibidado Avenue, in a neighborhood filled with mansions the young women...

The Cathedral of Seville is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and third-largest church—not only verifiable, it’s the first thing that strikes you on entering.

Seville, the largest city of southern Spain’s Andalucia region, is as full of contrasts as you might imagine of a city that was important in the Roman era, was ruled by the Moors for centuries, and then became not only the seat of Spanish...

Charles V (Carlos to his Spanish subjects and Karl to the subjects of most of the Holy Roman Empire) built this palace in the Alhambra at Granada; he wanted both to show his power and wealth and to put a Christian stamp on the formerly Muslim...