Vía de la Plata: Stage 1

You will start in Andalusia’s capital city, crossing the Catedral del Santa María cathedral, that is considered the biggest gothic temple in the world and where is believed that Christopher Columbus is buried. From the front you will walk through the Avenida de la Constitución avenue and also through the streets García Vinuesa, Jimios, Zaragoza and Reyes Católicos. Then you will have to cross the Puente de Isabel II bridge also known as the Puente de Triana bridge, over the Guadalquivir river. This river also goes through the Parque Nacional de Doñana park. You will walk through a neighborhood called Triana, famous due to the great amount of flamenco dancers and singers that were born here. After crossing the Basílica del Patrocinio basilica you will have to turn right and go through a staircase to get near to the dual carriageway. You will have to cross a roundabout and then get to a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river. You will see an indication that tells you that you will have two option to get to Santiponce:

• You can continue straight forward towards Camas located in Vega del Guadalquivir; you will also go through Ajarafe. Once you get there you can visit its local church devoted to Nuestra Señora de Gracia, you can also visit the Torre del Cortijo de Gambogaz.
• If you continue near the river, after a kilometer you will have to go through a path to the left leaving behind Camas and El Cerro de Santa Brígida. You will cross the dual carriageway two times and also the train rails through an underpass. After approximately 10 kilometres you will get to Santiponce, where you will see the Monasterio de San Isidro del Campo monastery, built in the 14 century and inaugurated by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán also known as Guzmán el Bueno. After this visit you will have to continue and you will get to Conjuto Arqueológico de Itálica; it is an old Roman city that used to be very important during the Roman Empire, its origins are from the 206 BC. It used to be surrounded by huge walls and also a theatre, an amphitheatre, aqueducts, thermal baths and some temples and public buildings. Then you will have to continue through a secondary road, through its hard shoulder until get to a roundabout, where you will have to cross the national road to continue to La Algaba. After crossing again a bridge over the dual carriageway you will get to a path of approximately 4 kilometres that get to Arroyo de los Molinos. If you can’t cross here due to the water level you should go back for half a kilometres and go through a path to the left that will lead you to the national road. You will continue through the national road until get to the secondary road that will lead you to Guillena. If you can cross the stream you will have to walk through some fields and after one kilometer you will get to the Arroyo Galapagar stream, near Guillena.

Bear in mind

You have to take into account that in this stage you will be walking approximately for a kilometer through a road with no hard shoulder so you have to be very careful. The most complicated part is in Arroyo de los Molinos, where you should cross but there is not a path or a bridge for it. If the stream has a little bit of water you will be able to cross it but if it has a lot of water you will have to turn back and go through the national road.