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 All Ways Spain Guide to Granada

Granada – A brief introduction

“Give him alms, woman, for there is nothing in this life like the grief of being blind in Granada”, so says the verse of Francisco de Icaza, which the city has proudly adopted as its motto. Over-the-top and melodramatic it may sound, but to say that Granada is a delight to the eyes is no idle boast. There can be few cities so well favoured by their natural surroundings as Granada, built on hills which afford stunning views to snow-capped mountains and across broad plains. It is not hard to understand its appeal to successive peoples who have given Granada its rich history, from Roman days through the seven centuries of Moorish dominion to the triumphant Christian reconquest of the city in the late 15th century. Each culture has left its mark upon the city in countless ways, but Granada is known above all for its Moorish heritage, epitomised by the dream-like Alhambra palaces.

This complex of fortresses, palaces and gardens, built largely in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Nasrid sultans, is the focus of everyone’s gaze when they visit Granada, and rightly so. It is a hard challenge to envisage a more beautiful setting, on the wood-covered Sabika hill, seemingly floating between the city and the Sierra Nevada. Your first sight of one of the world’s most beautiful buildings is likely to remain long in the memory, but the Alhambra also rewards one with new pleasures on every reacquaintance, from every perspective. The intricate plasterwork engravings from the Koran in the sumptuous palace courtyards, the play of water in the pools of the Generalife gardens, the views to the Albaicín (Moorish quarter) from the ramparts of the Alcazaba – all can be appreciated in so many different ways.

Although the Alhambra has naturally come to symbolise Granada, the city has many other fascinations and charms. The historic districts of the Albaicín, Realejo and Sacromonte, each with a very distinct character, hold a wealth of interest. The Albaicín is one of the finest examples in Europe of a medieval town, being still based on the layout of the Moors – all crooked, cobbled streets and tightly packed houses. The Realejo is also a wonderful place to stroll around as besides its many monuments it is perhaps the best place to see contemporary granadino life, in what is still a very traditional barrio (neighbourhood). Sacromonte is a beguiling eccentricity: full of folklore and legends. Formerly home to a sizeable gypsy population, it still attracts visitors to flamenco performances in its cave houses but also those who appreciate its semi-rural tranquility and the fabulous views back to the Alhambra and the city.

The historic heart of Granada is the square of Bib-Rambla, the elegant pavement café and flower stalls of today telling nothing of a past of mass burnings of Arab books, Inquisition trials, joustings and bull fights. The Cathedral and Royal Chapel are nearby, one a vast Renaissance structure with an imposing main Baroque façade, the other delicate, on a far more human scale. The chapel houses the mortal remains of Christian Spain’s great immortals: Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, the “Catholic Monarchs”.

In Moorish times the Grand Mosque, the Madraza (university) and the Alcaicería (market for silks, jewelry, spices) were the focal point of the city. The Mosque was destroyed to make way for the Cathedral but the last two still stand – although only the beautiful oratory remains of the Madraza and the Alcaicería (several alleyways of shops reminiscent of a souk) is a replica of the original which was destroyed by fire in 1843. A further flavour of the past commercial life of the city is provided by two streets known colloquially as “the Arabic tea shop streets” where North African and Middle Eastern traders sell furniture, clothes, teas, spices, lamps, rugs and all manner of craftwork. The tea shops themselves make an ideal stop for the weary. Perhaps better still is to soak in the hot and cold pools of a luxurious hammam: there are two Arabic baths in the city, recreating an era and a culture when this was a daily ritual for the people of Granada.

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Geography

Granada is at 686m above sea level, enclosed by mountain ranges on three sides and an extensive plain (la Vega) on the fourth. It is watered by two principal rivers, the Darro and the Genil. The former rises some 15 kilometres to the east of the city and enters in the valley formed between the twin hills of the Albaicín and the Alhambra; the latter flows down from Sierra Nevada and meets the Darro, unseen, under the city centre.

The highest mountains on the Iberian Peninsula, the Sierra Nevada, form an impressive backdrop to the city, especially in winter. The highest peak, Mulhacen (3481m), is only without snow for a few months each year and the ski resort has a season that generally lasts between late November and early April.

Granada is indeed favoured by its location: while only an hour’s drive from the Sierra Nevada it is also within similar distance of the Costa Tropical. Due to the Sierra Nevada’s protection from northern winds, and the proximity of Africa, the coastline enjoys a sub-tropical micro-climate where sugar cane, avocadoes, bananas, dates, mangoes and the like flourish.

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Some statistics

  • Population: 243,000, rising to some 450,000 if one includes the conurbations on the periphery of Granada, and the transient population of some 60,000 students.
  • Demographics: According to the most recent census, 53% of Granada’s population is female, 47% male. 22% is under 20 yrs old, 17% over 65 yrs old – hence the active population is 61%.
  • Tourism: The economic sector which generates most wealth and employment in the province of Granada, with over 1.6 million tourists per year. Tourism accounts for around 20% of the province’s local Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around 40% of the city’s. The sector directly generates 15% of employment.

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The Alhambra and Generalife

For information on visiting this magnificent complex of palaces, fortress and gardens, click here

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Albaicín

The Albaicín is living history, unlike almost anywhere else in a European city at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The intertwining neighbourhoods that merge together to form it all share an idiosyncratic urban layout of narrow, tangled, cobbled streets and small whitewashed houses that goes straight back to Moorish times. In fact, its history goes further back still and tells of settlements on this hill of Iberian peoples, Romans and Visigoths. It was, however, with the arrival of the Zirid tribe in the troubled years of the mid-11th century that the Albaicín began to acquire definite status and importance. From then until the 13th century, when the royal palace was moved to the neighbouring hill of the Sabika, it was the Sultans’ seat of power. The area suffered hardest after the eradication of the Moriscos, since this was always the nucleus of the Muslim population of Granada. At the time of the Reconquest there were over 30 mosques in the Albaicín and an estimated population of some 60,000. When Christian followers of the Catholic Monarchs were rewarded with deeds to properties in the Albaicín they generally chose to demolish the houses on small plots and combine them to build substantial “carmens”. These are traditional Hispano-Muslim houses with gardens and orchards hidden to the view of others by their towering walls; places of luxury and tranquility; now home to the wealthy and famous – of Granada and elsewhere. Indeed, as well as emigration away to the suburbs, the Albaicín has in recent years seen many foreigners moving in, buying up and restoring the houses that were no longer wanted or afforded. Although this mix of incomers and long-established families is not always easy, and despite its vastly reduced population (less than 10,000), the Albaicín is today a dynamic community, reflecting the fascination that Granada has always exerted on the minds of outsiders.

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Realejo

The Realejo, where once the Jewish quarter was to be found, and where once was located the settlement that gave its name to the whole population of Granada – (“Garnata al-Yehud”), remains to this day a traditional district, of great character, where life is lived intensely. The name, signifying the Royal Quarter, possibly derives from the expropriation by the Crown in 1492 of the properties of Jews living in this area, or from the earlier existence of gardens belonging to the Nasrid nobility. The reasons for the lack of any remaining Jewish buildings are simple: in addition to the razing of the area following the expropriations it is a fact that Jews had to blend in with the dominant communities wherever they lived – hence the lack of a distinctly Jewish style of architecture. Nevertheless, historians suggest that the area would have looked very similar to Muslim areas of the 11th century city: narrow streets and alleys, small houses grouped round small squares, public bathhouses, a synagogue, and a meeting place (“kneset”).

Today the Realejo divides into two main areas. The flat area west of Campo del Príncipe is built around the once extensive lands of two major religious orders: of Las Comendadoras de Santiago and the Dominicans of Santo Domingo. When these land was taken back from the church in the mid-19th century a more even plan of streets ensued. By contrast, the area above Campo del Príncipe, known as “Antequeruela” after the influx of Muslim refugees from the town of Antequera in 1410, is typically Moorish in its seemingly haphazard layout. These slopes, crowned by the Torres Bermejas (“Vermilion Towers”), the oldest remaining part of the Alhambra’s defences, is largely unknown, and hence when discovered, all the more impressive. It hides some of the city’s most beautiful carmens as well as the elegant gardens and art museum of the Fundación Rodriguez-Acosta, and past the Alhambra Palace Hotel, the 19th century villa and gardens of Carmen de los Mártires.

Campo del Príncipe is one of the most attractive squares of Granada, lined on one side with pavement cafés and with a real buzz of the neighbourhood in its central park. It is here that one of the city’s most traditional processions of Easter Week takes place, when on Good Friday at 3pm thousands fill the square to ask silently for three favours before the statue “Cristo de los Favores” (Christ of The Blessings), a tradition which goes back to the 18th century.

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Sacromonte

Sacromonte, “the sacred mountain”, owes its name to the catacombs which held, so legend maintains, the mortal remains of Cecilio and Tesifón, the patron saints of Granada. The district is known the world over for its caves which were, until the beginnings of the 20th century, inhabited largely by gypsy families who created the zambra, a fiesta of dancing, singing and raucousness. Most of the gypsies were moved out to low-income housing projects in the outskirts of Granada some 40 years ago, after a torrential rainfall washed out many of the caves. Since then, the Sacromonte has become the centre for flamenco cabarets catering to large-scale tourism and most of its caves have been taken over and rehabilitated by foreigners and artists.

Sacromonte affords some of the best views in all Granada, particularly of the Alhambra, and is a lovely place to just stroll, such as along the cobbled path called Vereda de Enmedio, in the shadow of Granada’s 14th century wall. Going further into Sacromonte (as we do on our Granada Countryside Walk) takes you towards the Abbey of Sacromonte, infrequently visited by tourists, but well worth seeking out. Its roof still badly damaged after a fire in the 1990's, it has a somewhat neglected appearance. Visits are with a Spanish-speaking guide, and only between 11-13.00 and 16-18.00, but it is well worth taking the chance to see the fine collection of religious art in the museum and chapels, as well as the famous relics of San Cecilio in the Holy Caves or catacomb. The views from here of the city, the Alhambra, and Jesús del Valle are equally rewarding.

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Going Out in Granada

Any visitor to Granada will soon discover that to appreciate the city’s attractions it is best to mould one’s timetable to hora andaluza – Andalucian Time. Shops (and almost everything else) open around 10am and close between 8-9pm, but the famous siesta is still observed, meaning nowhere will be open between 2-5pm. This forces you into a long lunch and a little rest – no bad thing, especially if you intend to make the most of the evening and night. Restaurants, of which Granada has a rich stock, seldom open their kitchens before 8.30pm and the locals will not be seen in them much before 10pm. For the granadinos, this is the time to visit one or two bars, sampling the tapas given with each drink and of which there is a great variety. You are seldom farther than ten metres away from the door of a bar in Granada but among the most rewarding areas to explore are the streets around Calle Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, a student area, and the grid of streets between Calle Recogidas and Plaza Trinidad.

If you have done justice to the tapas you may not need dinner, and may skip instead straight to the next phase of a grand night out a la granadina: the bar de copas, or lounge bar/club. Instead of wine or beer, one switches here to spirits and mixers. Those who can hold their drinks will learn with delight that Spanish bars hold little truck with the parsimonious measures of British pubs – gils, optics and the like – and it is simply a matter of the bartender’s generosity and hand-eye coordination.

As you leave (around 3am), you will undoubtedly see the same drinks being consumed outdoors in squares and side-streets, usually by loud, vociferous groups of all ages below 40. This is the infamous botellón (literally, “big bottle”), which enrages neighbours and leaves a huge mess behind, but which its practicants justify by the high prices of bars and the fact that they “do no-one any harm”. Alcohol is, of course, more expensive in bars than supermarkets, but in Spain prices are nothing like as steep as in tax-heavy northern Europe. And they probably don’t do anyone harm – unless you are trying to sleep or happen to be a street cleaner on duty the next morning. Spaniards still seem to be able to drink to excess without the ensuing violent mayhem of certain other countries. In any case, what it really comes down to is the fact that bottellón is fun: being in the open-air (something possible only with a Mediterranean climate), with a big group of your friends, a touch of rebellion, and the assured disapproval of one’s elders. What more could one ask for?...

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Going out of Granada

So, you decided not to go on to the bar de copas, disco or late-night flamenco bar? and you slept through the botellón or were lucky enough to have a hotel tucked away from it all?

Then you may be thinking about a short excursion out of the city. Here are some of our favourites:

 

  • Monachil – A small village some 10kms from Granada, easily reached by local bus, with a whole host of trails leading off into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The village itself is a favourite place for having Sunday lunch.
  • Camino de los Neveros – This trail was, until the advent of refrigerators, principally used to bring down ice from the Sierra Nevada, this being the work of a group of men known as neveros. Starting from the suburb of Los Rebites, one ascends at first gradually, then more steeply, for some 20 kilometres, joining up with other approaches to the main peaks.
  • Jesús del Valle – Starting in the valley of Valparaíso in Sacromonte, this walk takes one through leafy tracks along the meandering River Darro in the direction of two delightful villages, Huetor de Santillán and Beas de Granada.
  • Guejar Sierra – A village in the lee of the Sierra Nevada, some 15 kilometres’ bus ride from Paseo del Salón in downtown Granada. After wandering around the narrow, sloping streets of the town (a pleasure all in itself), any number of walking options present themselves, or in early summer a great place to bathe or paddle a canoe is the nearby reservoir.
  • Dúrcal – If you head out of this town (20 minutes south from Granada, by Alsina Graells bus) towards the Sierra Nevada, you will encounter first orchards and vegetable gardens and then a track leading sharply down to the River Dúrcal. A great walk for a hot summer’s day is to walk upriver, following old irrigation channels and then in the riverbed itself, to reach an ice-cold waterfall, small pools and rocks for sunbathing.

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Visitors’ Book

A mere few of the many things that have been said about Granada…

  • “Who does not know and admire Granada even if they have never visited it?” – Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, 19th century poet
  • “Ah that I could wander with you amid the fantastic and imaginative walls of the delicate Alhambra!” – Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British Prime Minister, in a letter to his sister
  • “Only sighs glide on the waters of Granada” – Federico García Lorca, 20th century playwright-poet
  • “With Granada fell all Spain’s greatness” – Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors In Spain

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