“.... there is nothing worse in life than to be blind in Granada”. - Francisco de Icaza

We might just have saved the best for last with Granada. Seville was fantastic and thrummed with energy, but Granada really was something special. The Alhambra is one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world and the crown jewel of Andalucía. That alone would make Granada a must see. But we also loved wandering the narrow streets and feeling like we stepped back in time or crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Morocco. Being the last stronghold of the Moorish kingdom left an imprint on Granada and it has a distinct ambience and charm.

Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains at the confluence of four rivers, the area around Granada has been inhabited since 5500 BC. It was settled in ancient times by Iberians, Romans, and Visigoths and al-Andalus was established in the first century after the Umayyad conquest. The Iberian Peninsula was under Moorish rule for centuries, culminating in the Nasrid dynasty who ruled the Emirate of Granada. It was at this time the magnificent Alhambra fortress was built and evolved into a large complex as Granada’s population swelled with Muslim refugees from other territories during the Reconquista. Granada was the last stronghold of the Moors and eventually the Kingdom of Granada capitulated to the Catholic Monarchs in 1492 after the Granada War. Even as other styles took root, such as Mudéjar, Renaissance, and Baroque, the historic Moorish architecture is still preserved throughout Granada, notably at the Alhambra and the Albaicín neighborhood.

We planned to see the Alhambra on our second day in Granada, so on our first day we booked two walking tours to help us get acquainted with Granada and its history. The train ride from Seville was 2.5 hours and we arrived mid morning with an hour to drop our luggage at Hotel Monjas del Carmen and meet our first walking tour in Plaza Nueva at 11 am. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was conveniently located on a dead end alley off Calle Reyes Católicos at Plaza Nueva. Plaza Nueva is the heart of Granada and sits between two hills: Alhambra on one side and the Albaicín on the other. Not only is it centrally located to the attractions, it is the hub of the shuttle buses that serve Albaicín.

During Islamic rule the River Darro flowed openly through this valley and bridges linked the two banks. After the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella took over Granada in 1492, a project was initiated to cover the river and make an open space in the city center. Because it was the first square to be built by the Christians in the city it was named Plaza Nueva (New Square). The plaza took on several configurations until the flooding of the Darro in 1835 and the demolition of the church of San Gil made it possible to extend the plaza to its current size and form. The plaza had many different uses such as a marketplace, a site for executions, and a place for processions and festivals. Today it’s the lively center of the city.

We were a little early and we used our time to check out Plaza Nueva. We walked by the fountain that was our meeting spot and noticed the pomegranate on the top. Pomegranates are everywhere in Granada - from the coat of arms to the decorative touches around the city - and it was fun to find them on our visit. Granada literally means pomegranate in Spanish and it is possible this is where the name came from as they are abundant in the area, but it is also possible the name derived from the Moorish name for the city (Karnattah/Gharnāṭah) that meant “hill of strangers”. When the Catholic Monarchs took control of the city in 1492 they added the pomegranate to their coat of arms as a symbol of their victory. The pomegranate also has significance in the three different religions - Islam, Judaism, and Christianity - that all called Granada home at some point, so it does seem appropriate it represents the city.

We had booked the “Essential Granada” tour through Walk in Granada tours, which was free with the option to tip our guide at the end (which we generously did - she was great). I chose this company because they were highly rated and this tour focused on the city center and its history (as we were later doing a sunset tour in the Albaicín and Sacromonte, I didn’t need a tour that covered these areas in full). I did notice there were a number of free walking tours offered in Granada. I was very happy with the tour we chose - our guide was very knowledgeable, engaging, friendly, and had great recommendations for Granada (we took her advice for a restaurant for lunch, a pastry shop, and a Zambra performance - all were terrific). The tour was 2.5 hours and some of the spots we saw and learned about included:

- The Royal Chancellery of Granada at Plaza Nueva, which was created by the Catholic Monarchs in the early 1500s when they decided to move the Tribunal to Granada. The current building is from the 1530s, built during Charles V’s reign. Today it is the home to the Andalucía High Court of Justice.

- Church of Santa Ana in Plaza de Santa Ana (next to Plaza Nueva). This was built not long after the Royal Chancellery in the Mudéjar style. It’s a highly sought after wedding venue with a long waiting list. Next to the church is the Pilar del Toro (Fountain of the Bull) that was installed in 1941. Several places around Granada we saw fountains where you could refill your water bottle.

- We learned about the Jewish history in Granada as we walked through the old Jewish Quarter. We saw the statue of Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon who is best known for being the patron of translators. He was born in Granada in 1120 and left in 1150, likely fleeing persecution under the Almoravid dynasty.

- Corral del Carbón (originally al-Funduq al-Jadida) is a caravanserais built in the early 14th century and the only remaining caravanserais of the original fourteen from the Nasrid period. It was a commercial and trading center serving as a storehouse for grain and as an inn for traveling merchants. The most noted feature is the intricate entryway with similar details and ornamentation we would see the next day at the Alhambra.

- The Alcaicería, a market street in the heart of Granada. This was originally an Arab souk (bazaar) dating from the period of Nasrid rule (13th-15th centuries) that offered precious silver, spices, and silk, which was big in Moorish times when silkworm-friendly mulberry trees flourished in the countryside. Given the valuable items sold in the market, it had armed gates and its own guards. After the Reconquista, that market continued as the Christian Monarchs realized it was good for business. A fire destroyed the market in 1843 and it was rebuilt on a smaller scale using a Neo-Moorish style to emulate the Nasrid architecture (an “authentic fake”).

- Madrasa of Granada (aka Palacio de la Madraza) in Royal Chapel Square. The original madrasa, an Islamic school, was built in the 1300s and became a city hall after the Reconquista. Along the way, much of the original structure was demolished and replaced with a baroque building. Fortunately the original oratory and its Moorish decorations were preserved when walls were erected during the Christian era to hide them. Restorations occurred in the 20th century and today the building is part of the University of Granada and we could see the mix of Moorish, Mudéjar and baroque architecture. We especially liked the beautiful arch and mihrab.

- Exteriors of the Royal Chapel (the final resting place of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel) and the Granada Cathedral. We didn’t go in either of these buildings on the tour, but stopped outside where our guide pointed out various features of the buildings and told us the history of them. There were intricate designs made out of small rocks and stones outside the Royal Chapel - we saw this kind of stone work multiple places in Granada and every time I had to stop and look - unique and interesting! I later read this mosaic of pebbles is a traditional Granadian style using white pebbles from the Darro River and black ones from the Genil River.

- Plaza de Bib-Rambla, the first square in Granada dating to the Nasrid period. The name is derived from the Arabic Bab al-Ramla, meaning “Gate of Sand”, likely referring to its proximity to the sandy bank of the Darro River that flowed freely through the city center at that time. The square was located close to the mosque and Alcaicería, making it an important gathering place in its time. It remained a central and popular spot in Granada after the Reconquista when the Catholic Monarchs renovated the square and expanded it to its current size. Today the Gigantones Fountain and permanent flower market are features of the plaza and it is surrounded by restaurants and cafes.

- Albaicín (or Albayzin), the oldest neighborhood of Granada located on San Cristobal hill north of the Darro River and across from the Alhambra. The last stop on our tour was a short walk in Lower Albaicín to learn about the old Moorish quarter. We would return here in the evening for another walking tour that would cover both Albaicín and Sacromonte in more depth, but this was a nice introduction to the neighborhood.

By the time our tour concluded we were ready to eat and visited Los Manueles on the advice of our tour guide. I ordered a typical dish in Granada - habas con jamón (broad beans with ham, this version also served with an egg) and Norah had calamari. Both were good and we were happy with the recommendation. We returned to the Alcaicería to browse in some of the shops and decided to pop into the Granada Cathedral. The cathedral is the second largest church in the country (after Seville) and one of the few to exhibit Renaissance features. The cathedral was built over the destroyed mosque after the Reconquista and took nearly 200 years to build. When construction started in 1518 the plans called for a Gothic design, but this evolved due to the parade of architects and changing tastes over the span of construction. The foundation is Gothic, the interior layout is mostly Renaissance, the last altars are Neoclassical, and the façade is Baroque. It was a beautiful cathedral, but we were kind of “churched out” at this point of our trip and we didn’t linger for too long. When we finished our visit in the cathedral, the pastry shop our tour guide recommended in Albaicín, Pasteleria Andalui Nujaila, had reopened for the afternoon and we stopped by for some pastries. Everything looked great and it was hard to choose; the pastries we selected were delicious - I don’t think there are any wrong choices here.

In the evening we had our second walking tour of Granada: Lolita’s Sunset Tour of Albaicín and Sacromonte. We met our guide Carmen by the fountain in Plaza Nueva at 6:00 pm and the tour was around two hours long. Carmen was a wealth of information and we enjoyed the tour. As we walked through the narrow streets she told us the histories of these neighborhoods while pointing out different landmarks, such as San Juan de Los Reyes Church with the old minaret serving as a bell tower - one of many mosques converted to churches after the Reconquista - and fountains and cisterns evidence of ancient plumbing systems that were ahead of their time. Along the way we stopped at various viewpoints, including the most popular one, Mirador de San Nicolas, which was accordingly crowded. We had some quieter moments at other viewpoints we visited such as Miradors de la Placeta del Comino and Enmedio. From all the viewpoints the main feature was the Alhambra, especially scenic when lit up against the darkening sky.

Albaicín is the oldest neighborhood in Granada and was at its peak during the Nasrid dynasty (13th to 15th centuries) when it had over 40,000 inhabitants and thirty mosques. During this time the population of Granada swelled as it was the last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula and absorbed Muslims leaving points north as they were pushed out by the Reconquista. When the Nasrid dynasty saw its end in 1492 the Albaicín was designated as the Muslim quarter. Initially Muslims were granted some rights, but this didn’t last long as they were forced to convert to Christianity (converts were called “Moriscos”). Unrest eventually culminated in the Morisco rebellion of 1568 and there was a mass expulsion of Moriscos from Granada that left much of the neighborhood abandoned. Some Christian residents remained, but the neighborhood had a low urban density until the 19th century when Gran Vía de Colón was created and displaced many of the city center inhabitants to the Albaicín. The neighborhood was declared a World Heritage Site in 1994 and despite the expulsion of the Moriscos centuries ago, the neighborhood still retains the medieval street plan from the Nasrid dynasty and Moorish and Mudéjar architecture. We certainly felt like we stepped back in time as we walked the narrow, cobbled streets and soaked in the ambiance.

Sacromonte borders Albaicín and is marked by its distinctive whitewashed cave houses dug into the side of a hill. This neighborhood is known as the home of the Gypsies, or Romani people (a quick note on language. Our local guide told us she knows that the name “Gypsy” has fallen out of favor due to negative connotations, but it is still in use locally because they don’t see it as a negative and she used the term “Gypsy” throughout our tour). In the 14th and 15th centuries the Romani people migrated from India and settled in southern Europe. They arrived in Granada in the late 15th century as camp followers of the Catholic Monarch armies that reconquered Granada in 1492. More Romani settled in the area as the Jewish and Muslim populations were expelled from Granada. The Romani were allowed to stay outside the city walls on the condition that they abandon their nomadic lifestyle and pick up a trade (according to the first Pragmática passed in 1499). While Sacromonte was predominantly Romani, the neighborhood was also home to other marginalized groups such as the Moriscos or formerly enslaved persons of African descent. The mixing of cultures could be seen in the evolution of zambra, the form of flamenco particular to Sacromonte and Granada. We would return the next evening for a performance in one of the caves - it was another highlight of our trip!

Throughout the years, the Roma people of Sacromonte faced persecution and hardships. The population in the neighborhood increased as the Spanish Civil War displaced people and some settled in Sacromonte. Tragedy struck in the 1960s when there was torrential rains and flooding that threatened the integrity of the cave houses. Many of the residents were forced to leave and unfortunately some died. Eventually people returned to the neighborhood and despite the difficulties, Sacromonte still retains its Roma identity. Today 50,000 Romani people call Granada home, both in Sacromonte and in other neighborhoods throughout the city. I was not aware of this particular history of Granada and it was super interesting to learn about it on our tour. Our tour ended in Sacromonte and we walked back down to the city center. We had dinner at the Moroccan restaurant Arrayanes where we especially liked the presentation of Norah’s dish. We called it a night after that as we had an early time slot for the Alhambra the next morning. Granada was already a wonderful stop on our trip and we couldn’t wait to see the crown jewel of the city the next day.