The Palacio de San Telmo was built in 1682 as the seminary college of mareantes (navigators school). It was designed in an exuberant Spanish Baroque style by the celebrated local architect Leonardo de Figueroa with help from his son Antonio Matias. The palace is named after St. Telmo, the patron saint of sailors.
The school closed in 1847 and two years later the building was sold to Antoine d'Orleans, the Duke of Montpensier, who made it his palace. In 1893 princess Maria Luisa d'Orleans donated the vast gardens of the palace to the city, who used the terrain to host the 1929 exposition. Today the area makes up a large part of the Maria Luisa Park. The princess also gave up the palace, which she donated to the church to house a seminary. In 1989 the building once again changed hands, and today the Palace of San Telmo is the official residence of the president of the autonomous community of Andalusia.