Alfonso XIII Canal

Brief Information

The Alfonso XIII Canal looks like an urban waterway, but its significance lies elsewhere: it is the old course of the Guadalquivir, turned into a managed stretch of water. It was made part of Seville’s flood-protection system against major floods. So what matters here is not only the line of the water, but how the river was separated, closed off, and then linked again to the new channel.

The northern entrance of the old river was blocked by a dam at Chapina, while the southern side was controlled by the port lock. In this way, the former branch became a dock and received the general name of the Alfonso XIII Canal. Later, during preparations for the 1992 World Exposition, the Chapina dam was opened again, and the starting point was moved upstream to San Jerónimo. The connection between the canal and the river there runs through underground pipes with a regulated water flow.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to view the canal as a former river that was brought under urban engineering control. The first detail is its elongated form itself: about 13.5 kilometers of old riverbed, plus a short branch by the port and an outlet to the river at the lock. These parts show that what we have before us is not a decorative embankment, but an altered river system.

The second detail is the position of the quay between Paseo de Colón by the Casco Antiguo and Calle Betis in Triana. The canal lies between two urban banks and gathers old bridges around it: Triana, San Telmo, Los Remedios, and the Centenario. They can be seen as markers of the former current. The third detail is the northern connection with the river at San Jerónimo: the water there is regulated by underground pipes beneath the dam. After that, the canal reads not as a remaining river, but as its edited version.