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Granada - General Information

• The City

  To most people Granada means the Alhambra and nothing more; many visitors stay near it and leave without venturing into the centre of town at all. Certainly this rose-coloured 14th century complex of royal residences and government buildings astride a ridge above the city remains the most stunning example of Moorish architecture in the world. But there is much more to Granada. The Albaicín district, facing the Alhambra over the gorge of the Darro valley, is almost as imposing. And there are many other draws: a fine Renaissance cathedral; an atmospheric Moorish quarter; gypsy cave dwellings; an over-the-top baroque monastery.

  Granada may not be as beautiful as Seville, but the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada form a breathtaking backdrop and what it does have is the vibrancy and bustle of a youthful, working town. Its large University and the many backpackers who gravitate towards it means that its nightlife is probably the best and hippest in Andalucia. The city’s roughness, gruffness and edge will appeal to some visitors, just as it will repel others. And despite the older granadinos’ dour, unfriendly reputation, it remains one of the few places in Andalucia to maintain the generous tradition of free tapas with every drink in most bars.

• History

  Granada was inhabited by Iberian tribes in ancient times. But it was Muslim invaders from Africa in the 8th century who created the first significant settlement there. Several hundred years later the Berber tribe known as the Zirids established themselves in nearby Illiberis (Elvira) then decided to move to the more easily defensible Garnatha. In the early 13th century the Castillians began to reclaim swathes of Andalucia. As a consequence, refugee Muslims flooded into Granada, most of them settling in the Albaicín area.

  	Panorama of Alhambra

  Soon after this the Nasrid chieftain known to history as Mohammed 1 created a bulwark against the encroaching Christians by annexing Almeria and Málaga to form the last independent Muslim emirate in Spain, of which Granada was the capital. However this was not enough to secure the city’s future. In the 15th century it fell prey to internal squabbles over the succession to Sultan Muley Hasen, while the kingdoms of Aragón and Castilla became powerfully united through the marriage of Fernando and Isabel. In 1491 over 150,000 Catholic troops blockaded the city and Boabdil, the last Sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, finally surrendered the following year.

  Fernando and Isabel brutally repressed and persecuted the Muslim and Jewish populations of Granada. As a result many of the artisans fled to North Africa. The city soon fell into economic decline. Matters were not helped by later destruction and looting of the Alhambra at the hands of Napoleon’s troops. It was not until Washington Irving visited in the early 19th century and wrote Tales of the Alhambra that Granada regained some of its former allure. During the 20th century the new city was created in the gorge of the Darro River, though many disliked its modernist architecture and the fact that the river itself had to be covered.

• Granada Today

  Today, modern Granada emerges from the gorge between the Alhambra and the Albaicín hill and sprawls westward across the plain. The city’s main artery is the traffic-choked Gran Via, which stretches north to south from the Jardins del Triunfo to Plaza Isabel la Católica. Intersecting with the latter, the Calle Reyes Católicos links Granada’s two main squares: the Plaza Neuva in the east and Puerta Real in the west.

  The major sights in the modern part of the city include the Capilla Real, the cathedral, the University and the labyrinth of Alcaicería. This last was once a Moorish silk market. Today, the rebuilt stucco-faced shops are filled with vendors selling the arts and crafts of Granada province. Devoted souvenir hunters will find rich assortments of Spanish tiles, castanets, wire figures of Don Quixote and lots of jewellery, which compares favourably with the finest Toledan work. Close by lies 16th century University of Granada. Distinguished by the Gothic portal of its old building, it was originally founded to entrench Christianity in the city and is now home to 60,000 students, many of them foreigners. Then there’s the Monasterio de San Jeronimo, perhaps the most beautiful of all the area’s landmarks. Empress Isabel’s honeymoon lodgings, it features fragrant orange trees in one courtyard and Gothic gargoyles and Mudéjar wooden ceilings in another.

  The city’s main attraction – aside from the Alhambra (see below) – is the hillside Albaicín district. Named after the Muslims of Baeza who were expelled by the Christians and resettled in Granada in 1227, this remains the largest still-inhabited Moorish quarter in Spain. Its characteristic whitewashed, villa-like houses with terraced gardens and patios – called carmens – remain beautifully preserved, as do the narrow cobbled streets that wind between them. Unfortunately the district’s numerous mosques were converted to Christian churches after the reconquista, but today a new mosque, the Mezquita de Granada, has been built next to the Mirador de San Nicholás, along with an Islamic Studies Centre, reflecting the fact that the area’s Muslim population is growing again.

  The most celebrated landmark in the Albaicín is the Mirador de San Nicolás. Some visitors might be put off by the fact that its denizens include leather-clad bikers, scruffy buskers and souvenir-hawking gypsies. But the lookout here is generally considered to offer the best views in Granada, especially at sunset, when the red brick of the Alhambra turns blood red, with the snow-clad Sierra Nevada as a magnificent backdrop. At such moments it’s easy to see why Granada’s Moorish inheritance has stimulated the imaginations of centuries of travellers.