Alameda de Hércules

This guide to the Alameda de Hercules in Seville opens with an odd fact: during the 1649 plague, Sevillians crossed this square by boat. It traces the ground back to the Laguna de la Feria, a stagnant swamp cut off from the Guadalquivir River in 1383, and follows the Count of Barajas, acting under Philip the Second, as he drained it in 1574 to build what became one of Europe's first public promenades. Listen for the white poplars, alamos, that gave the square its name.