Five thousand years of history on a Sevillian ridge — Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, and a Mudéjar palace
Carmona is a walled hilltop city 30km east of Seville with one of the longest continuously inhabited histories in Spain — Carthaginian, Roman (as Carmo, a major municipium with an extraordinary necropolis), Moorish, and medieval Christian layers visible simultaneously in its streets. The Roman necropolis is one of the largest outside Rome. The old town within the Moorish walls is extraordinarily well preserved, with Mudéjar palaces, Renaissance churches, and the Alcázar del Rey Don Pedro (14th century) now a Parador hotel with views across the Sevillian plain.
Carmona was a major Roman city — Julius Caesar is said to have spent time here during the civil wars, and the Romans built a monumental bridge, a forum, and what is now Spain's most impressive Roman necropolis (400 tombs including the Tomb of the Elephant and the Family Tomb of Servilia). Under Moorish rule Carmona was a significant city of al-Andalus before falling to Ferdinand III of Castile in 1247; the Puerta de Sevilla (the Roman gate rebuilt by Moorish and Christian hands) has been the city's main entrance for over 2,000 years.