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About Us
Our History
As its name suggests, the Cristina Terrace is located in the Cristina Building, a few meters from the Torre del Oro in Seville. Built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, it was originally conceived as the Hotel Cristina, being unique in its style, since it represented a fusion between neo-colonial architecture and Art Decó.
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On March 14, 1929, this hotel was inaugurated, the price of which, announced in the press at the time, was around 28 pesetas per night for two people. It had 456 rooms and 100 bathrooms, and there were frequent Spanish and flamenco shows, which were held in the basement or grill in winter and on La Terraza in summer.
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La Parrilla del Hotel Cristina, as the large open space used for dancing and shows was called, was located in the basement, offering dance with an orchestra and vocalist for all the staff, although the wealthiest youth, not necessarily hotel guests, used to habitually preponderate among his clients. In summer these soirees were moved to the roof of the hotel, and instead of Grill it was assigned the term of Terrace, as we have already seen.
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Its architect was Modesto López Otero, author of such emblematic buildings as the Hotel Gran Vía or the Unión y el Fénix Español building in Madrid. It was the same architect who designed the ornaments on the façade, a distinctive sign of the Terraza del Cristina today.
In the mid-1920s, the news arrived of holding the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, and the need for another hotel in the area arose, and it turned out that the extensive Cristina Gardens, located between the San Telmo Palace and the Torre of the gold were going to be used to undertake said project.
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What is striking is that although it may not be apparent at first glance, this is not the building that we know today.
50% of the hotel was demolished in the 1970s for no apparent reason, and to everyone's surprise, at the beginning of the 1980s, what we know today as the Cristina Building was erected. In the part where we are, it is the only part that was not demolished and that still maintains elements of the time such as the ornamental reliefs on the façade, represented in our logo.
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It is an almost exact copy of the hotel, but if you look closely you can see certain differences, such as the distribution of windows and decoration.
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It is not very clear, but it seems that the hotel had entered into a progressive decline and speculative interests perhaps led to the pickaxe doing its thing in the seventies and ending from one day to the next with everything that this hotel represented and with all her inner beauty. Its demolition was practically total, and a new one was erected in its place, its external appearance was preserved, although with some modifications, as well as its arcaded galleries of the commercial floors.
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Its walls keep secrets and curiosities worthy of being known and preserved, such as, for example, that for years, one of its floors was the home of the well-known bullfighter Juan Belmonte and his family (who had a great friendship with the current owner family) when the hotel closed it became a residential building, all the more reason to visit us.
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This is undoubtedly an authentic VISUAL HERITAGE OF SEVILLE that La Terraza del Cristina, its Experiences brand and its Cristina Business Center offers its visitors and the general public from an original perspective and with high added value.
La Terraza del Cristina today
Its current owners have always had the conviction of keeping the building in the best possible conditions, for which they began a gradual renovation project in 2005. A mission, in order to create a point in the city based on quality services both for companies, with the implementation of one of the first Business Centers in the city, as well as for individuals and visitors, with complementary restaurant services as well as as well as gastronomic and cultural experiences in a space conditioned to welcome all those visitors interested in our culture, tradition and gastronomy. All this carried out with a clear vocation of social contribution and contribution of value to our city.