Royal Chapel

Lonely Planet review

The Capilla Real, adjoining the cathedral, is Granada's outstanding Christian building. Spanish-history fans will enjoy this connection with the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando, who commissioned this elaborate Isabelline Gothic style building as their mausoleum. It was not completed until 1521, hence their temporary interment in the Convento de San Francisco.

The monarchs lie in simple lead coffins in the crypt beneath their marble monuments in the chancel, which is enclosed by a stunning gilded wrought-iron screen created in 1520 by Bartolomé de Jaén. The coffins, from left to right, are those of Felipe El Hermoso (Philip the Handsome, husband of the monarchs' daughter Juana la Loca), Fernando, Isabel, Juana la Loca (Joanna the Mad) and Miguel, the eldest grandchild of Isabel and Fernando. The marble effigies of the first four, reclining above the crypt, were a tribute by Carlos I to his parents and grandparents. The representations of Isabel and Fernando are slightly lower than those of Felipe and Juana because Felipe was the son of the Holy Roman emperor, Maximilian. On the dense Plateresque retablo , note the kneeling figures of Isabel (lower right) and Fernando (lower left), attributed to Diego de Siloé, and the brightly painted bas-reliefs below depicting the defeat of the Muslims and subsequent conversions to Christianity.

The sacristy contains a small but impressive museum with Fernando's sword and Isabel's sceptre, silver crown and personal art collection, which is mainly Flemish but also includes Botticelli's Prayer in the Garden of Olives . Felipe de Vigarni's two fine early-16th-century statues of the Catholic Monarchs at prayer are also here.