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Baeza’s hub for strollers and café-goers is all along this oblong central promenade. Fountains grace its tree-lined length, and there are bars with open-air seating in the shade. Interesting buildings facing the square include La Alhóndiga, the old corn exchange, with its triple-tiered arches.

In the first tercio the matador taunts the bull with a red cape. The picadors goad the bull on horseback with steel-pointed lances to weaken the animal’s powerful drive.

Once the location of the hay market, but now home to a Sunday morning pet market. Birds, puppies, exotic fish, lizards, mice and even silkworms have been known to turn up here. Also good for bars and restaurants.

Córdoba gave this 17th-century arcaded square a long overdue sprucing up for the tourist onslaught of 1992 (see Seville Expo ’92), even putting in an underground car park. But it still retains some of its customary functions, including an open-air market on Saturday morning, in addition to the regular covered market in the building with the clock-tower. The arches provide shade for a number of cafés and tapas bars, where you can sit and admire the brick façades with their wrought-iron balconies.

These squares represent the heart of the city. Plaza de San Francisco (also called Plaza Mayor) is Seville’s oldest and the focal point of public spectacles. Plaza Nueva is a pleasant park with a monument to King Fernando the Saint.

This square was opened up when Napoleon’s soldiers destroyed the church that once stood here. The square is now adorned by an ornate iron cross, La Cruz de la Cerrajería.

This is one of Cádiz’s busiest hubs of commercial and social life. Lined with cafés, bars and palm trees, its chief adornment is the monumental Neo-Classical façade of the Ayuntamiento (town hall), along with several handsome towers. The square opens out onto the port, ensuring a constant stream of pedestrians and opportunities for people-watching.

Matadors are idolized in Spain, and the crowd jeers when his job is done and the bull’s corpse is dragged away.

Birds of prey include the Spanish imperial eagle and the peregrine falcon.