Seville's oldest recipes aren't in books: they live behind a convent hatch, where cloistered nuns have made them for centuries unseen. San Leandro's yemas, Madre de Dios olive-oil cakes and the Cabildo hatch sweets are bought through a revolving window, in cash and without seeing who makes them. A sweet route ending at the city's oldest confectioner.
The route
Apartamento Esencia Sevilla
Route starting point. Leave the apartment towards the first stop.
Convento de Santa Paula
15th-century cloistered convent with a Gothic-Mudéjar portal and an ornament museum. Sweets through the hatch.
Tip: Ring the bell and wait at the hatch: the nuns answer unseen. Their pumpkin jam and huesos de santo fly in season.
Convento de San Leandro
Home of the yemas de San Leandro, the city's most famous sweet, with a 16th-century recipe.
Tip: The yemas are just egg yolk and sugar: nothing more. They also sell quince sweets made with fruit from their own orchard.
Convento de Madre de Dios
16th-century Dominican convent famous for its olive-oil cakes and convent pastry.
Tip: Madre de Dios olive-oil cakes are half of Seville's favourite breakfast.
La Campana
The historic confectioner (1885) to close the route: marble display and display-case yemas.
Tip: Compare the industrial yemas here with the convent ones from the route: no contest. The convent ones are handmade and smaller.
Confitería El Torno (Plaza del Cabildo)
Sweets from the Santa María la Real convent, sold through a hatch in the centre's best-hidden courtyard.
Tip: You enter through the El Torno silver shop. The semicircular courtyard is a hidden gem few tourists find.
