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a unique urbanisation at
Puerto Lope, Granada |
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Granada is the capital of the province with the same name, situated in the eastern part of the region of Andalucia. Geographical and scenic diversity characterizes the land. There is the coastal are with its warm climate; the extensive, fertile Genil plain; and the mountainous regions with a colder climate, where we find the 3,481 metre Mulhacén, the highest peak oln the peninsula. |
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The city of Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains at the confluence of the Darro and Genil rivers. Its unique history has bestowed it with an artistic grandeur embracing Moorish palaces and Christian Renaissance treasures. As the last Moorish capital on the Iberian peninsula, it also holds great symbolic value. |
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Granada has been shaped by the hills, where the old dostricts in the Albaicín and the Alhambra were founded, brimming with steep, narrow streets, beautiful nooks and corners, and marvellous landscapes. The new part of the city is situated on the plain, crisscrossed by the large arteries of Gran Vía de Colón and Calle de los Reyes Católicos, and where the busy streets around the Cathedral are found. |
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The Moors crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 and settled in what was then a small visigoth town perched atop the Alhambra hill. Here they settled, erected walls, and laid the foundation for the prosperous civilization that would follow. It was in the 9th Century when Granada rose to importance after the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba. Its splendour was reached in 1238, when Mohammed ben Nasar founded the Nasrid dynasty, and the kingdom of Granada stretched from Gibraltar to Murcia. |
This dynasty bore twenty kings until King Boabdil was forced to surrender Granada to the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1492. During three centuries, a magnificent and rich islamic culture flourished, leaving Granada with architectural marvels of the caliber of the Alhambra, declared a World Heritage Site along with the Generalife and the Albaicín. After the Reconquest, the city continued to thrive, stimulated by the Catholic monarchs who ordered the construction of new civil and religious structures. |
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The Alhambra and Generalife. |
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A short stroll from the centre of the city to the "red hill" will lead us to the most enchanting structure of Hispano-Moorish art from the Nasrid culture, the Alhambra.
The journey begins at the square called Puerta Real here take the street Calle de los Reyes Católicis, while beneath it the Darro River flows, chanelled at the beginning of the 19th Century. To the right at the Plaza del Carmen, there is the Town Hall.(Ayuntamiento), installed in a former convent of the Carmelite Order finished in 1627. Nearby, at Calle Mariana Pineda number 40, you will find the Corral del Carbón a former Moorish corn exchange and inn from the 13th century, featuring a splendid archway entrance. Standing in the Plaza de Isabel la Católica, there is a monument to Isabella accompanying Columbus, the work of Mariano Benlliure in 1892 to commemorate the discovery of America four hundred years earlier.
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To reach the Alhambra, you can take the Cuesta de Gomérez which ends, like so many streets in Granada, at a gate or "puerta". This particular one, the Gate of Las Granadas has three arches and was built in 1536 by Pedro Machuca by order of Carlos V.
The oldest fortress in Granada is the Bermejas Towers, the main entrance to the Alhambra is at the south side and is the Gate of Justice. The Wine Gate provided access to the high part of the Alhambra; the main side with the pointed horseshoe arch faces the Alcazaba.
The most important of the three palaces is the Comares Palace. Built by the sultan Abul-Hachach-Yusuf I. Its façade is exquisite.
El Patal gardens provide access to the Generalife built in the 14 th century and surrounded by splendid terraced gardens with fountains, pools and spouting water. It was the summer residence of the Nasrid Kings.
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The Cathedrals and Surroundings. |
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The narrow streets that make up La Alcaicería and Zacatín, are the old Moorish silk market and area of skilled craftsmen, today a colourful commercial area.
The Cathedral was built between 1518 and 1704, and although started in the Gothic style, most of the structure is Renaissance. It has a basilica ground plan, and the 17th century façade, composed of three large arches, was the work of Alonso Cano and evokes the great Roman triumphal arches. |
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The church of El Sagrario that you can see today is the 1704 reconstruction, forming part of the group of buildings attached to the Cathedral and Royal Chapel. Its ground plan is in the form of a Greek cross, and it contains important paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as a lovely Renaissance baptismal font carved from white marble. |
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