The most charming examples of popular architecture in Carmona are found in its old neighborhoods, such as San Felipe, the former Jewish Quarter—now known as the San Blas neighborhood—or Santiago. The Santiago neighborhood is an intramural area where the natural habitat abruptly replaces the urban one due to the dramatic changes in the region’s topography. Its key formal feature lies in its inverted position compared to the other neighborhoods, which are supported by the contour lines of the settlement. The blocks are generally large, except for those surrounding the plaza that gives the neighborhood its name, which breaks this pattern.

Within this area, the city adapts to the terrain, replicating the structure that supports it. The blocks are irregular in both shape and size, resulting in a street layout with broken alignments and narrow pathways called adarves

A monumental city like Carmona naturally lends itself to the filming of historical movies. However, in ‘Fugitivas’ the streets of neighborhoods like the Barrio de Santiago served perfectly as the backdrop for this contemporary road movie. It’s also worth visiting the Taberna La Sacristía, which features in the film and boasts over two centuries of history, most of it as a winery.

Watching ‘Malvaloca’, filmed in the mid-20th century, invites us to compare the eras depicted in this neighborhood and other Carmona locations.