Yes, for anyone who wants a Carthusian monastery and a contemporary art programme in one visit, and it costs almost nothing. The Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo sits inside the old Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, on Isla de la Cartuja across the river from the old town.
That location is the first thing to plan around. Nothing here combines on foot with Seville Cathedral or the Real Alcázar, so the site works best as the anchor of a half day rather than a filler squeezed between two monuments in the centre.
The day matters next. Saturday at the CAAC is free for ten hours, from 11am to 9pm. Sunday costs money, runs five and a half hours from 10am, and is over by 3.30pm. On weekdays, Tuesday to Friday, the last two hours from 7pm are free as well, and every Monday it stays shut. Paying, the monastery alone or the exhibitions alone cost €1.80, and the complete visit €3.01.
Is the Cartuja monastery in Seville worth visiting?
Yes, especially on a Saturday. The Cartuja monastery houses the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, and both are free from 11am to 9pm every Saturday and from 7pm on weekday evenings. At other times the complete visit costs €3.01, and the site closes on Mondays.
Saturday or Sunday, which day to visit the CAAC
The free access window runs Tuesday to Friday between 7pm and 9pm, and on Saturdays from 11am. Since 11am is opening time and 9pm is closing time, the Saturday exemption is not a window at all. It is the whole day.
Sunday, the day many visitors associate with cheap museum entry in Spain, is charged here, lasts five and a half hours and shuts at 3.30pm. Saturday is free, lasts ten hours and runs into the evening. A weekend in Seville that has to pick one of the two days for this site has an answer that does not depend on taste.
On a free Saturday the 3.01 euro complete visit costs nothing, so the monastery and the temporary exhibitions come together at no charge. The rule about tickets stopping half an hour before closing also stops mattering that day, since there is no ticket to buy.
Across the whole week the CAAC opens 55.5 hours: ten on each of five days from Tuesday to Saturday, and five and a half on Sunday. Eighteen of them are free, the final two hours of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday plus the ten of Saturday, so almost a third of the opening week costs nothing. A visitor who cannot make a Saturday gets at most two free hours per attempt, and Sunday is the only day charged from opening to closing.
How to get to the Cartuja monastery from the old town
The main entrance is at Avenida Américo Vespucio 2, on the Isla de la Cartuja, with a second gate on Camino de los Descubrimientos. That is across the river and outside the perimeter where the paid doors of the old town are concentrated. The metro does not help, and the nearest tram stop, Archivo de Indias, is a 26-minute walk.
The bus gets closest. TUSSAM lines 02 and C1 stop at Américo Vespucio (Monasterio), 230 metres from the entrance, and lines 02 and C2 at Américo Vespucio (Monast. de La Cartuja), 261 metres away. A single ticket costs 1.40 euros, according to TUSSAM, paid on board or by tapping a contactless Visa or Mastercard on the validator, so no travel card is needed for one return trip. The cards that make repeat journeys cheaper are compared in Seville transport fares explained.
Cartuja station, on Cercanías line C2, is a 14-minute walk to the north. Drivers can use the free La Cartuja car park or the paid one at Torre Sevilla.
Coming straight from the airport with luggage, the EA bus calls at Santa Justa, the mainline rail station, and lines C1 and C2 stop there too, at José Laguillo (Estación de Santa Justa). The rest of the airport route is in Seville airport to the city centre. In practice, though, the site is a better fit for a day without bags, as the anchor of a half day rather than a stop on the way in.
How much the CAAC costs outside the free hours
The tariff the Junta sets for the CAAC splits the site into two routes sold separately. The monument costs 1.80 euros, the temporary exhibitions another 1.80 euros, and the complete visit to both 3.01 euros. Two separate tickets would come to 3.60 euros, so buying them together saves 59 cents.
The monument is the Monasterio de la Cartuja de Santa María de las Cuevas, and the exhibitions are the contemporary art programme installed inside it. A 1.80 euro ticket buys one of the two, so the choice at the desk is between a Carthusian monastery and a contemporary art show standing in the same walls.
Some visitors never pay at any hour. Free entry with accreditation covers children under 12, teachers working in Spain, ICOM card holders, press, tour guides and groups booked through the centre’s education department. An EU passport is not on that list: here the clock does what nationality does at other regional museums.
The 3.01 euro complete visit is the highest fare among Seville’s six public museums, compared in the guide to what Seville’s museums cost, and it is still roughly a fifth of the 15.50 euro general ticket at the Real Alcázar.
What time to arrive, and which days it is shut
The CAAC timetable does not match the other Seville museums run by the Junta de Andalucía, even though they share an administration. This one opens at 11am where the others open at 9am, and on Sunday it closes at 3.30pm where the others close at 3pm. It also keeps the same hours all year, with no summer timetable.
The practical gap is two hours in the morning. Anyone chaining the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla with this one on the same day has to start with the first, because at 9am the second has not opened. The way each of them grants free entry also differs, as set out in the guide to Seville’s free museums.
Tickets are sold until half an hour before closing, so the last one goes at 8.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday and at 3pm on Sundays, and staff begin clearing the galleries 15 minutes before closing. Beyond every Monday, it closes on a list of holidays the centre sets each year, and the current one covers 1 and 6 January, 3 April, 1 May, 15 August, and 24, 25 and 31 December.
Using the free 7pm window after a day in the old town
By 7pm the paid monuments of the centre have finished: Casa de Pilatos closes at 6pm every day of the week, and the daytime routes of Seville Cathedral and the Real Alcázar are done. At that hour the CAAC still has two hours of opening left and charges nothing for them, so a day that starts with the old town can end across the river without a second ticket.
Summer strengthens the same case. With a July mean daily maximum of 36.0°C in the AEMET normal values, set out in the figures for a Seville summer, a site that runs from 11am to 9pm covers the stretch of the day that cannot be spent outdoors, and the last two hours of it are free.
It suits anyone who wants the monastery and contemporary art in one outing and has a Saturday or a weekday evening free. It suits less well a trip whose only free slot is a Monday, when it is shut, or a Sunday afternoon, when it has already closed at 3.30pm.
Frequently asked questions about the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo
When is the CAAC in Seville free?
From Tuesday to Friday between 7pm and 9pm, and on Saturdays from 11am, which is its opening time. Since Saturday closing is 9pm, the free entry covers the entire day, ten consecutive hours with no ticket desk.
What are the CAAC opening hours?
Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 9pm, and Sundays and holidays from 10am to 3.30pm, with no separate summer timetable. It closes every Monday, and tickets are sold until half an hour before closing time.
How much does the CAAC cost?
A visit to the monument costs 1.80 euros, a visit to the temporary exhibitions another 1.80 euros, and the complete visit 3.01 euros. They are two separate routes inside the same enclosure, the Cartuja monastery and the contemporary art programme installed within it.
How do I get to the CAAC by public transport?
Take TUSSAM bus 02 or C1 to the Américo Vespucio (Monasterio) stop, 230 metres from the entrance, or the 02 or C2 to Américo Vespucio (Monast. de La Cartuja), 261 metres away. Cartuja station on Cercanías line C2 is a 14-minute walk. Neither the metro nor the tram comes close.
Is the CAAC free for EU citizens?
Not as such. Nationality plays no part here: everyone gets in free during the Saturday and weekday-evening windows, and outside them free entry needs an accreditation, such as being under 12, a teacher in Spain, an ICOM card holder, press or a tour guide.
If the trip includes a Saturday, spend part of it here. Ten hours open, no ticket desk, and the monastery included.