HISTORY OF THE HOTEL DOÑA MARÍA

The Hotel Doña María was originally a XIV Century palatial mansion belonging to Samuel Leví, advisor and confidant of King Peter I, "The Cruel".

According to chronicles of that period, subterranean passageways used to connect the Hotel to the Royal Palace (Reales Alcázares) and to the Guadalquivir River, outside the city walls.

The palatial mansion (Casa Palacio) was later acquired by the Marquis and Marquise of la Peña, the great grandparents and great-great-grandparents of the present proprietors.

The façade of the Hotel was designed for the Iberoamerican Exposition of 1929 by the architect Juan Talavera Heredia, whose pupil Aníbal González fashioned the world-renowned Plaza de España of Seville. Talavera Heredia constructed the hotel's façade at the widest extreme of the Calle Mateos Gago -- precisely the location of some former Arab baths.

Following the deaths of the Marquis and Marquise of la Peña, their daughter Doña María Sasiaín Aguirre inherits the mansion and all of the valuable works of art contained therein. Among the most outstanding of these artistic masterpieces is a painting titled "Virgin of Granada" from the XV Century Italian School. The new owner, Doña María, donated this work to the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, where it remains on display today.

In 1965 Doña Ángela Huesca Sasiaín, Marquise of San Joaquín, inherits the building, along with its artistic treasures from her aunt, Doña María. At that time, she decides to construct a hotel and to decorate it with her bequeathed works of art. She thus becomes the first woman hotel impresario of Seville. She names the hotel in honor of her aunt, the "Hotel Doña María".

The Hotel currently is the property of Doña Federica de Vallés, Marquise of San Joaquín and her children. They have continued to conserve the style and ambience created by their mother and grandmother, Doña Ángela Huesca.