Sunday at Seville Cathedral runs on three different clocks. The building opens to visitors at 2.30pm, the free public visit starts at 4.30pm, and the Giralda stops letting anyone up at 5pm. Treat any one of those as the others and the tower disappears from the itinerary.
A general Seville Cathedral ticket costs €13.00 online and covers the cathedral, the Giralda and the Church of El Salvador on a single admission. The cathedral and its bell tower keep separate closing times, and the tower always goes first.
How much is a ticket to Seville Cathedral?
€13.00 booked online and €14.00 at the window, with reduced rates of €7.00 and €8.00 and a guided visit at €20.00 plus €1.00 booking. The detail that shapes the visit: the Giralda closes at 5pm, up to two hours before the cathedral, so the tower is climbed first.
The tower closes before the building, every day of the year
The Giralda stops admitting visitors at 5pm while the cathedral keeps going until 6pm from Monday to Saturday and until 7pm on Sundays. One exception exists in the whole calendar: Sundays in July and August, when the tower holds on until 6pm. The gap between the two reaches two hours.
That gap is why the last slot of a Sunday afternoon is the weakest ticket on sale. A visitor arriving at 5.30pm still gets ninety minutes inside the building and none of it includes the climb.
The three Sunday times that get mixed up
Seville Cathedral publishes two separate Sunday timings that look interchangeable and are not. The building admits paying visitors from 2.30pm. The free public visit is a distinct arrangement that runs from 4.30pm to 6pm, outside public holidays, on compulsory online reservation with limited capacity.
Line those up against the 5pm tower cut-off and the arithmetic settles the day. A paid Sunday ticket bought for 2.30pm leaves two and a half hours of tower access. The free visit leaves thirty minutes of it. Booking the free slot and heading anywhere other than the ramp first means climbing nothing.
What a ticket costs online and at the window
The tariff the Cathedral sets for general admission is €13.00 online against €14.00 at the ticket window, and the reduced rate holds at €7.00 and €8.00 through the same two channels. Booking ahead saves exactly €1.00 on both, and secures a slot in a building that caps capacity.
Guided visits invert that logic and it is worth knowing before booking. They cost €20.00 online against €21.00 at the window, but the online purchase adds a €1.00 handling fee. The online total lands at €21.00, identical to paying in person, so the advance-booking discount disappears on that product alone.
| Ticket | Online | Ticket window | Real difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| General admission | €13.00 | €14.00 | €1.00 cheaper online |
| Reduced admission | €7.00 | €8.00 | €1.00 cheaper online |
| Guided visit | €20.00 plus €1.00 fee | €21.00 | None |
| Audioguide | €5.00 | €5.00 | None |
| Audioguide app | €4.00 | n/a | Online only |
Reduced pricing applies to visitors over 65, students up to 25, holders of a large-family card and people with a disability rated between 33 and 65 per cent. Free admission covers children under 13, visitors with a disability above 65 per cent and unemployed Spanish nationals, all on production of documents at the door.
The ticket opens a second church most visitors never use
General admission includes the Church of El Salvador, a separate building roughly five minutes away on Plaza del Salvador. Nothing further is booked and nothing further is paid: the same ticket is presented at both doors, and it is the largest church in the city after the cathedral itself.
This is the most wasted line on the ticket. A visitor who finishes at the cathedral, walks out into Avenida de la Constitución and heads for lunch leaves an admission unused that was already bought. Building it into the same afternoon costs a five-minute walk.
Two clock changes that move the closing hour
Seville Cathedral extends its closing time by one hour when daylight saving begins, and that extension does not apply in July and August, which run on their own published schedule. It is the sort of clause that quietly invalidates a timetable screenshot taken a month before a trip.
July and August also shift the opening rather than the closing. Monday to Saturday the doors open at 9.30am instead of 11am, and on Sundays at 12.30pm instead of 2.30pm, while the closing hours stay at 6pm and 7pm. In a city where the middle of an August day is not walkable, that earlier start is the useful half of the change.
How long the visit actually takes
Seville Cathedral runs to about seventy-five minutes for a general visit and ninety for a guided one, and the Cathedral publishes both figures alongside its rates. The estimate covers the church and the Giralda climb together, which is why the tower cut-off eats into it rather than extending the day.
What the estimate leaves out is the Church of El Salvador, whose walk and visit sit on top. Working from the cathedral chapter’s own numbers, the Cabildo de la Catedral de Sevilla, a full ticket used properly asks for something closer to two hours than to one, and rather more in the summer months when the mean daily maximum reaches 36.0°C.
Evening programming in Seville runs on separate tickets and separate calendars from daytime admission. Which monuments open after dark, and at what price, is set out in the guide to Seville after dark, where the Alcázar’s €7.00 night rate undercuts its €15.50 daytime one.
How it fits with the Real Alcázar next door
Seville Cathedral and the Real Alcázar de Sevilla share a UNESCO World Heritage listing with the Archive of the Indies and sit within a few minutes of each other, but they run independent ticketing, independent closing days and independent exemption rules. Neither admission covers any part of the other.
The order that works is dictated by the tower rather than by taste, and the Alcázar’s own ticket rules and opening seasons set the other half of the timetable. The cathedral has a hard 5pm cut-off on the Giralda and the Alcázar admits until 5pm in winter and 7pm in summer, so the cathedral goes first whenever both fall on the same day. Reversing them is what turns a two-monument afternoon into a one-monument afternoon.
The free Sunday slot is one of only two Seville admissions that require an advance reservation, and the other one is also free. That pattern, with the tariff of every monument in the old town beside it, is set out in the guide to Seville monument tickets and which ones need booking.
Frequently asked questions about Seville Cathedral and Giralda tickets
How much is a Seville Cathedral ticket?
General admission to Seville Cathedral costs €13.00 booked online and €14.00 at the ticket window. The reduced rate is €7.00 online and €8.00 at the window, covering visitors over 65, students up to 25 and holders of a large-family card.
What time does the Giralda close?
The Giralda stops admitting visitors at 5pm on every day of the year except Sundays in July and August, when it closes at 6pm. The cathedral itself stays open later, so a late ticket buys the building but not the tower climb.
Is Seville Cathedral free on Sundays?
There is a free public visit on Sundays outside public holidays, running from 4.30pm to 6pm with compulsory online reservation and limited capacity. It is not the same as the Sunday opening time of 2.30pm, which is when paid visits begin.
Does the cathedral ticket include the Church of El Salvador?
Yes. A general Seville Cathedral ticket includes admission to the Church of El Salvador, a separate building about five minutes away on Plaza del Salvador. No extra booking or payment is needed, and the same ticket is presented at both doors.
One ticket, two buildings and a tower that shuts first. The climb is the part the clock takes away.