Women of Seville: Our Guides’ Women’s History Walk on PTV Sevilla

On October 16, our guides Laura Tinajero and Alba Delgado were interviewed on Paseando x Sevilla, a program on the local channel PTV Sevilla. Instead of talking in a studio, they took the presenter on a walk through the women of Seville: a noblewoman who founded a hospital, a queen who shaped the city’s future, a poet queen of al-Andalus and the thousands of cigar makers who inspired Carmen.

Several of these women are at the heart of our History of Women of Seville private tour. Here is what the program covered, who these women were, and where you can still find their traces in the city today. Want to walk it yourself? Check dates for the tour.

Photos in this article: screenshots from the same program (#PaseandoxSevilla).

The women of Seville on local TV

The idea behind the route is the same one behind our tour: Seville’s streets are full of women, but guidebooks rarely name them. A monument, a street sign or a hospital façade can open a story that most visitors walk straight past.

The cameras followed Laura to the tiled monument to Catalina de Ribera, on the avenue that bears her name beside the Murillo Gardens. A few steps away, Alba spoke at the Columbus monument, and the program closed beside the Archivo General de Indias, where Laura presented her new book.

Women who shaped Seville: the stories behind the route

These are some of the women Laura and Alba talked about on the program. On the tour, our guides tell their stories in the places where they happened, together with others whose names rarely appear in guidebooks.

The cigar makers of the Royal Tobacco Factory

The Royal Tobacco Factory, built in the eighteenth century, was one of the largest industrial buildings in Europe. During the nineteenth century its workforce became mostly female: the cigarreras, who rolled cigars by hand. At its peak, thousands of women worked there.

Their world inspired Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella Carmen, and Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera made the Seville tobacco factory famous around the world. The building still stands near the Alcázar and María Luisa Park, and today it houses the University of Seville.

Catalina de Ribera, the noblewoman who founded a hospital

Catalina de Ribera (c. 1447–1505) was one of the most powerful women in the Seville of her time. In 1500 she founded the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas (Hospital of the Five Wounds) to care for the poor, and the great Renaissance building her son later raised is now the seat of the Parliament of Andalusia. With her husband she also began the family palace known today as the Casa de Pilatos.

Queen Isabella I of Castile in Seville

Isabella I of Castile, known in Spain as Isabel la Católica, spent long periods in Seville. Her son and heir, Prince John, was born in the Royal Alcázar in 1478, and in 1503 the Crown founded the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville, soon housed in the Alcázar, to control trade with the Americas. The Columbus monument where Alba stopped stands on the same avenue as Catalina de Ribera’s.

Itimad, the poet queen of Muslim Seville

In the eleventh century, Seville was the capital of a kingdom ruled by al-Mu’tamid, remembered as the poet king. His wife, Itimad al-Rumaykiyya, came from a humble background; according to tradition, she won him over by completing a verse he had improvised beside the Guadalquivir. Another famous story says that when she longed to walk in mud like the women of the city, he had a “mud” of musk, camphor and rosewater prepared for her to tread. Their story ended in exile in Morocco after 1091.

The women who survive in the archives

Not every woman on the route has a statue. Many appear only in documents: contracts, lawsuits, letters and licenses kept in archives. The Archivo General de Indias, where the program closed, is one of them: part of Seville’s UNESCO World Heritage site together with the Cathedral and the Alcázar, it is also one of the three archives where Laura has spent years researching.

Ni domésticas ni domesticadas: Laura Tinajero’s new book

At the end of the program, Laura presented her book Ni domésticas ni domesticadas: Viaje al mundo femenino de la Edad Moderna, published by Akal in July 2026 (Artefactos collection, 208 pages). The title translates roughly as “Neither Domestic nor Domesticated: A Journey into the Female World of the Early Modern Age.”

In it, Laura narrates the lives of the women she has found in her own archival research, including women from Alba’s research for the Casa Sefardí project. That research took six years in three Seville archives: the Archivo Histórico Provincial, the Archivo de Indias and the archive of the Archbishopric. One of the cases she highlights is María Sánchez, administrator and co-founder of the University of Seville in the early sixteenth century, who was later written out of the university’s founding story.

Born in Seville in 1982, Laura holds a degree in Humanities from Pablo de Olavide University and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Córdoba. Besides guiding, she teaches art history to American university students and researches women of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries in Seville’s historical archives; she is also the author of four novels. That research reaches her tours: when she guides, she shares details found in original documents instead of repeating legends. The book is written in Spanish, in paperback and ebook.

Alba’s research and Casa Sefardí

Alba Delgado founded Altai Turismo and created Casa Sefardí de Sevilla, a free virtual museum about the Jewish history of the city. The project began as her master’s dissertation at Pablo de Olavide University in 2023–2024, and its research draws on documents such as notarial contracts and royal decrees kept in Spanish archives. On the program, Alba told the stories of Doña Leal and Ana González, two Jewish women of medieval Seville featured in the museum: read Doña Leal and Ana González, the Jewish women of Casa Sefardí.

Some of the women documented in that research now reach many more readers through Laura’s book. To explore that side of Seville before your trip, read our guide to the Casa Sefardí virtual Jewish museum, or walk it with us on our Jewish heritage tour of Seville.

Take the History of Women of Seville tour

If the program made you curious, you can walk these stories with us. The History of Women of Seville tour is a two-hour private Seville history walking tour with an official guide, in English or Spanish. Because it is private, the group is only yours: there is time for questions, and the pace adapts to you.

It works well as a second walk after a classic visit to the Cathedral and the Alcázar, or for travelers who have already seen the main sights and want a different view of the city. Read more about our private historical tours in Seville or meet the guides behind them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the women’s history tour in Seville?

It is a two-hour private walking tour that tells the history of Seville through the women who shaped it, from the cigar makers of the Royal Tobacco Factory to queens and noblewomen. An official guide leads it in English or Spanish, only for your group.

Who were the cigarreras of Seville?

The cigarreras were the women who rolled cigars by hand at Seville’s Royal Tobacco Factory. During the nineteenth century they became most of its workforce, numbering in the thousands, and they inspired the character of Carmen.

Is Carmen set in Seville?

Yes. Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella and Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera place Carmen in Seville, where she works at the Royal Tobacco Factory. The building is real: it still stands near the Alcázar and María Luisa Park, and today it houses the University of Seville.

Who was Catalina de Ribera?

Catalina de Ribera (c. 1447–1505) was a Sevillian noblewoman who founded the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas, whose building is now the Parliament of Andalusia. An avenue beside the Murillo Gardens, and the tiled monument on it, carry her name.

Who are Laura and Alba?

Laura Tinajero and Alba Delgado are official tour guides with Altai Turismo. Laura researches women in Seville’s historical archives and wrote Ni domésticas ni domesticadas; Alba founded Altai Turismo and created the Casa Sefardí project.

Where can I buy Ni domésticas ni domesticadas?

The book is published by Akal (2026) in Spanish, in paperback and as an ebook. You can order it from the publisher’s website or from bookshops in Spain.

Sources: PTV Sevilla, “Paseando x Sevilla | Mujeres de Sevilla” (October 16, 2026); Akal, book page and author profile; EFE / efeminista, October 4, 2026; Casa Sefardí de Sevilla; Altai Turismo’s current tour listing.