A History of Granada

Ancient, Roman, and Vandal Granada

Stone Age people were living in the Granada province as long as 400 000 years ago. The big game hunting and the abundance of caves to shelter in attracted these early people. Later peoples took advantage of the well-irrigated plains to cultivate food and the natural mineral resources were used to produce weapons, cooking utensils and eventually, jewelry. Between the tenth and the fourth centuries BC, a series of Mediterranean trading states, including Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks, settled on the province's coastal fringe. They came to exploit the vast mineral deposits and the good fishing. The first written documents available to historians are from the fifth century BC and record a Jewish community living in what's now Granada.

By the end of the fourth century AD, the Romans had completely colonized southern Spain. After the Romans, the next wave of invaders were the Visigoths, from Northern Europe, who occupied the city in the fifth century AD but made few changes to the civil, military and religious status quo.

Islamic Granada

Little is known about the Jewish community that settled here, but it must have been significant because it's mentioned often in fourth century AD legal documents. Jewish leaders are believed to have collaborated with the Arab invaders in 711 to overthrow the Visigoth monarchy. The mainly Muslim Middle Eastern and North African invaders - called Moors - conquered almost the whole of Spain within a decade.

At first Granada became an important outpost of a new Western Islamic Empire ruled by Abd ar-Rahman III based in Cordoba. However, fighting between different ethnic and cultural Muslim factions and an on-going Christian crusade to expel the Moors created a chaotic political situation in Andalusia. Ibn al-Ahmar, of the Arab Nasrid tribe, used the situation to his advantage in 1238 to establish an independent Moorish state of Granada. Independence was maintained by paying tribute to the encroaching Christian king of Castile, Fernando III. So, as the rest of Spain started to fall into Christian hands, Granada received the Muslim and Jewish refugees fleeing from other cities and continued to expand and prosper. The 13th and 14th centuries were the city's glory days when commerce, art and culture flourished; the Alhambra and the Arab University were built.

Spanish Granada

Towards the end of the 15th century, the ruling Nasrid family ended up fighting among themselves. The now united Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon, having conquered the rest of Spain, besieged the city and persuaded the last Moorish ruler, Boabdil, to surrender in 1492. For the first few years of Christian rule, Muslim citizens were permitted to live according to their religion and culture. But, by 1499, Cardinal Cisneros began to force all Muslims to convert to Christianity. They were later banned from speaking their language, wearing their traditional clothes and practicing their customs, and they were charged excessively high taxes.

During this period the Christians also destroyed many mosques or turned them into monasteries, churches or public buildings. By confiscating Muslim property and taking a percentage of the riches entering Spain from the New World during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown became enormously rich. This era was when Granada's great cathedral, churches, monasteries and convents were built. From the late 17th century until the present day the city has kept a low profile.

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, supporters of General Franco's military uprising murdered thousands of Republican sympathizers, including the outstanding local poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca. Granada remained a prosperous administrative capital of a fairly backward agricultural province until relatively recently.

Alhambra

The Alhambra, a fortress and masterpiece of Moorish architecture, truly is out of a fairy tale. From outside, its red fortress towers and walls appear at once plain and imposing, rising from woods of cypress and elm, with the Sierra Nevada forming a magnificent backdrop. Inside one finds the marvelously decorated emirs' palace, the Nasrid Palace and the Generalife gardens. The buildings date mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries, after the Arabic Nasrid prince, Ibn al-Ahmar, made an independent Moorish state. Each succeeding Nasrid ruler continued to beautify the royal palaces, combining wood, plaster, marble, brick and ceramic tiles with water, light and Arabic calligraphy. Its most celebrated parts, a series of courtyards surrounded by rooms, present a varied repertoire of Moorish arched, columnar, and domical forms. The romantic imagination of centuries of visitors has been captivated by the special combination of the slender columnar arcades, fountains, and light-reflecting water basins found in those courtyards, the Lion Court in particular. This combination is understood from inscriptions to be a physical realization of descriptions of Paradise in Islamic poetry.

Capilla Real

The Royal Chapel is located adjoining the Cathedral. Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragón are buried at this shrine. The architect Enrique Egas began work on the Royal Chapel in 1506 and completed it 15 years later, creating a masterpiece of the ornate Gothic style now known in Spain as Isabelline. In 1521 Isabella's body was transferred to a simple lead coffin in the Royal Chapel crypt, where it was joined by that of her husband, Ferdinand, and later her daughter, Juana la Loca, and son-in-law, Felipe. A small coffin to the right contains the remains of Prince Felipe of Asturias, a grandson of the Catholic Monarchs and nephew of Juana who died in his infancy. The underground crypt containing the five lead coffins is quite simple, but it's topped by elaborate marble tombs showing Ferdinand and Isabella lying side-by-side. It was commissioned by their grandson Charles V and sculpted by Domenico Fancelli. The altarpiece, by Felipe Vigarini, comprises 34 carved panels depicting religious and historical scenes. The bottom row shows Boabdil surrendering the keys of the city to its conquerors and the forced baptism of the defeated Moors. The sacristy holds Ferdinand's sword, Isabella's crown and scepter, and a fine collection of Flemish paintings

Cathedral

This richly ornate Renaissance cathedral with its spectacular altar is acclaimed for its beautiful facade and gold-and-white interior. It was begun in 1521 and completed in 1714. The chief attraction inside the cathedral is the Capilla Mayor, a rotunda circled by an ambulatory. Capilla Mayor is surmounted by a 150 foot dome. The graceful rotunda has two architectural layers, the upper one adorned by art by Alonso Cano depicting the life of the Madonna along with stunning stained glass that dates from the 1500s. At the entrance to the rotunda is a pair of panels, one depicting Ferdinand and Isabella in prayer, the other depicting Adam and Eve. Several glittering side chapels also decorate the cathedral. The carved and gilded Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Antigua, also known as the Capilla Dorada on the north wallis especially grand. Before leaving the area, and once outside, note the Puerta del Perdón, a notably elaborate side entrance facing north on Calle de la Cárcel.

Museo Arqueológico y Etnológico

The museum is housed in a beautiful Renaissance mansion with an impressive plateresque façade called the Casa de Castril. Inside, one will see artifacts from around the province belonging to people who have settled here from the Paleolithic period through to the Moorish occupation. Rooms one and two describe the Paleolithic and Neolithic era. Rooms three and four concentrate on Iberian and pre-Roman settlements. Room five is the Roman section. Room six has Visigoth remains and room seven shows how advanced the Moorish culture was here in Spain.

El Bañuelo

This 11th-century public bathhouse is one of the best preserved buildings of the period. It's been carefully restored and still gives one a feel of what it must have been like nearly 1000 years ago. During the Moorish period there were many bathhouses in Granada. Bathing is sacred to Muslims and is required before prayer. It also had a social as well as a religious function. People went to relax and socialize, get a massage and beauty treatments. The Romans were probably here first, using the water from the adjacent River Darro, and one can still see Roman and Visigoth capitals supporting the existing structure.

Visiting Granada

A small airport, about ten and a half miles from the city center, is serviced by flights from Madrid and Barcelona. Granada is also accessible by rail and road from throughout Spain and Europe. Granada has an excellent bus system with which to get around the city, though the energetic can get around easily on foot.