Metropol Parasol (Las Setas)

When the city demolished an old market in the Plaza de la Encarnacion and started digging foundations for a new parking garage, they hit Roman ruins. The construction stalled for years while the archaeological remains of a Roman settlement and Moorish-era buildings were excavated. The city then held a design competition for something that could sit above the ruins, and the winning entry from German architect Jurgen Mayer was so bizarre that locals were not sure whether to be thrilled or horrified.

The result, completed in 2011 after a decade of delays and cost overruns, is the world's largest wooden structure. Six enormous mushroom-shaped parasols — which Sevillanos immediately nicknamed "Las Setas" (The Mushrooms) — rise up to 26 metres above the plaza, supported by a lattice of micro-laminated birch timber imported from Finland. The engineering required to make wood work at this scale pushed construction costs from an original estimate of 50 million euros to roughly 100 million.

Underground, the Antiquarium museum displays the excavated Roman mosaics, Moorish walls, and remains that most visitors to the plaza literally walk over without realizing. The archaeological site includes fragments of a Roman fish-salting factory and the foundations of houses from the Almohad period. It is one of those rare places where you can see 2,000 years of urban history stacked in a single cross-section.

The rooftop walkway — El Mirador — curves along the top of the structure and offers the best 360-degree panorama of Seville, including views of the Giralda, the cathedral, and the rolling Andalusian countryside beyond. Come at sunset, when the waffle-pattern wooden lattice casts intricate shadows across the plaza below.