BLACKBOOK Metropol
BLACKBOOK Metropol Parasol, or “the mushrooms”, La Encarnación’s crowning glory SUDDENLY SEVILLE The city’s latest on-trend district boasts everything from chic boutiques to quirky brunch bars Until recently La Encarnación was just another piece of the maddening jigsaw that is old-town Seville, a traditional neighbourhood gently dying on its feet as the commercial life was sucked out of it. The heart of the barrio, Plaza de la Encarnación, was relegated to use as a car park. The Metropol Parasol building – colloquially known as “the mushrooms” – has changed all that. Designed by German architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, this ON LOCATION radical piece of urban design arrived to shock a city unused to having anything other than low-rise, low-risk buildings in its midst. During the six long years of the building’s gestation a fierce debate raged over the appropriateness (or otherwise) of planting this alien life form at the centre of a traditional Andalusian square. But in the three years since it opened, the Metropol Parasol has joined the Giralda and the Alcázar on the Seville tourist’s must-see list. An “antiquarium” 30 departures-international.com CONTACT PLATINUM CARD SERVICE FOR BOOKINGS in the basement shows off the Roman ruins found during building work, while the neighbourhood’s produce market has been re-housed on the ground floor. But the real surprises are to be found 38 metres above the plaza, where a late-night mojito and a tapa or two at GastroSol (gastrosol. es), followed by a stroll around the 250 metres of walkways among the building’s sinuous canopy, have become two of the city’s most recommendable experiences. Moreover, the mushrooms have single-handedly revitalised a formerly decadent area. To the north of the plaza the calles Regina, José Gestoso and Jerónimo Hernández teem with funky new boutiques like La Seta Coqueta ( lasetacoqueta.es) and Verde Moscú ( verdemoscu.eu), and kooky delis like Botellas y Latas ( +34 954 29 31 22) and Dulce Regina (+34 659 604 854) – not to mention gallery/eatery/ lofts like the unclassifiable Red House (redhousespace.com). Gastrotapas bars and brunch bars are two major trends, with Mangas Verdes (+34 692 529 093) taking the biscuit (not to mention the croissant) for La Encarnación’s hippest new breakfast venue. La Mercería ( lamerceriacafecultural.es) has Eye-catching graffiti art at Delimbo Crates double as fixtures at neighbourhood bookshop Un Gato en Bicicleta given new life to a fading genre, the cultural café. Meanwhile in La Alfalfa, south of the square, an area that was already up-andcoming has now taken flight, with the Calle Pérez Galdós and its environs now being described (inevitably perhaps) as a sevillano SoHo. Especially worth checking out are the boho bookshop Patrons browse the collectables at the rose-hued La Seta Coqueta Un Gato en Bicicleta (ungatoenbicicleta.wix. com), fashion/furniture dépot La Importadora (+34 954 56 18 29) and graffiti gallery Delimbo (delimbo.com). “Great new places are opening every week around here,” says one contented resident of La Encarnación. And all thanks to those magic mushrooms. ♦ by PAUL RICHARDSON CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: BURG + SCHUH/PALLADIUM/LAIF, © UN GATO EN BICICLETA, © DIEGO DIEZ P & OLEK/DELIMBO, © LA SETA COQUETA
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