Avenida de la Constitución is Seville’s short but central ceremonial avenue — a 600-metre stretch linking Puerta de Jerez with Plaza Nueva that runs beside the Cathedral and the City Hall and concentrates many of the city’s most important historic landmarks and civic functions.
It is a bustling pedestrian avenue that connects some of Seville’s most iconic landmarks, including the Seville Cathedral, the Giralda, and the Archivo de Indias. The avenue was renamed in honor of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, symbolizing Spain’s transition to democracy.
The avenue’s route has deep medieval roots: it gained prominence after the construction of the great mosque (later the cathedral) in the 12th century and especially after the Castilian conquest in 1248, when merchants, Genoese traders and artisans clustered around the cathedral steps and the nearby market areas. Over centuries it hosted book printers, silversmiths and the Lonja (merchant exchange), later becoming consolidated into the single Avenida de la Constitución through early 20th-century urban reforms implemented around 1911 and tied to the city’s preparations for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.
Walking the avenue you pass Plaza Nueva, the Seville City Hall, the Seville Cathedral (and its famous steps), the Iglesia del Sagrario site (formerly the Fuente del Hierro), and the General Archive of the Indies — institutions that together tell the story of Seville’s civic, religious and commercial power from the medieval period through the Age of Discovery. The avenue also connects directly to Puerta de Jerez and the riverfront promenades, making it a natural axis for processions and tourist routes.
Avenida de la Constitución functions as both a ceremonial boulevard and a daily urban thoroughfare. It hosts religious processions (notably during Holy Week), civic parades, and is lined with cafés and benches that make it a popular promenade for locals and visitors. Its proximity to major monuments concentrates foot traffic, guided tours, and street life, while its scale — relatively short and walkable — makes it ideal for a compact historical circuit.