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Alcazaba
What remains of the Alcazaba is chiefly its ramparts and several towers, the most important and tallest being the Torre de la Vela (Watch Tower), with a narrow staircase leading to the top terrace, which has splendid views. The cross and banners of the Reconquista were raised here in January 1492. One of the Alhambra's many dungeons is set in the ground just inside the Alcazaba's eastern walls.
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Alhambra
Stretched along the top of the hill known as La Sabika, the Alhambra is the stuff of fairy tales. From outside, its red fortress towers and walls appear plain, if imposing, rising from woods of cypress and elm, with the Sierra Nevada forming a magnificent backdrop.
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Alminar de San José
The lovely Alminar de San José survives from an 11th-century mosque.
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Arco de las Pesas
An impressive gateway in the Albayzín's 11th-century defensive wall.
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Catedral
Adjoining the Capilla Real but entered separately, from Gran Vía de Colón, the cavernous Gothic-Renaissance cathedral was begun in 1521, and directed by Diego de Siloé from 1528 to 1563. Work was not completed until the 18th century. The main façade on Plaza de las Pasiegas, with four heavy buttresses forming three great arched bays, was designed in the 17th century by Alonso Cano.
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Colegiata del Salvador
Plaza del Salvador is dominated by the Colegiata del Salvador , a 16th-century church on the site of the Albayzín's main mosque; the mosque's horseshoe-arched patio, cool and peaceful, survives at its western end.
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Convento de Santa Isabel la Real
The Convento de Santa Isabel la Real was founded in 1501. A few more steps down the street is Placeta de San Miguel Bajo, with many cafés and restaurants with outdoor tables. The plaza's Iglesia de San Miguel is another church on the site of a former mosque.
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Corral del Carbón
You can't miss the lovely, horseshoe-arched, Islamic façade of this building, which began life as a 14th-century inn for merchants. It was later used as an inn for coal dealers (hence its modern name, meaning Coal Yard) and subsequently a theatre. It houses government offices and a government-run crafts shop, Artespaña.
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Generalife
The name Generalife means 'Architect's Garden', and this soothing composition of pathways, patios, pools, fountains, trimmed hedges, tall trees and, in season, flowers of every imaginable hue, is the perfect place to end an Alhambra visit.
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Gitanos
Fancy some fresh air? Then make your way up to the Sacromonte district (up Granada's sacred mountain) to the cave-dwelling neighbourhood of gitanos (Roma). Once deemed a danger to public order and still largely on society's margins except for the area of music (mainly flamenco), the gitanos probably started inhabiting the caves before the 14th century. General poverty made many poor peasants who'd come to live in Granada move to the caves in the 19th century.
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Granada's Cathedral
Granada's Cathedral is a cavernous Gothic and Renaissance building. Construction began in 1521 and lasted until the 18th century. It was directed from 1528 to 1563 by Renaissance pioneer Diego de Siloé, and the main façade on Plaza de las Pasiegas, with four heavy square buttresses forming three great arched bays, was designed in the 17th century by Alonso Cano.
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La Cartuja Monastery
This architectural gem stands 2km northwest of the city centre. The monastery was built between the 16th and 18th centuries.
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Mexuar
This 14th-century room is the entrance to the palace. It was used as a ministerial council chamber and as an antechamber for those awaiting audiences with the emir. The public would generally not have been allowed beyond here. The chamber has been much altered; it was converted into a chapel in the 16th century, and now contains both Muslim and Christian motifs. At its far end overlooking the Río Darro is the small, lavishly decorated Oratorio (Prayer Room).
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Monasterio de San Jerónimo
The 16th-century Monasterio de San Jerónimo, 500m west of the cathedral, is the burial place of El Gran Capitán (the Great Captain), Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the military right-hand man of the Catholic Monarchs. It's a treat for fans of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, and stone carving. Don't miss the two lovely Plateresque doorways in the cloister, carved by the chief architect, Diego de Siloé, or the profusion of brightly painted sculpture inside the monastery church.
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Palacio de Carlos V
This huge Renaissance palace sticks out like a sore thumb in the Alhambra, because it clashes spectacularly with the style of its surroundings; were it in a different setting its merits would be more readily appreciated. Begun in 1527 by Pedro Machuca, an architect from Toledo who studied under Michelangelo, it was financed, perversely, from taxes on the Granada area's Morisco (converted Muslim) population.
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Palacio de Comares
This fabulous palacio was originally built by Emir Yusuf I, and thereafter served as the private residence for the ruler. It's built around the Patio de los Arrayanes (Patio of the Myrtles), and named after the hedges surrounding its rectangular pool and fountains. The rooms along the sides may have been quarters for the emir's many wives. Finely carved arches atop marble pillars form porticos at both ends of the patio.
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Palacio de Dar-al-Horra
Leave the Placeta de San Miguel Bajo, with its lively cafe-restaurants, by Callejón del Gallo, turn right at the end of this short lane, and you'll come to the 15th-century Palacio de Dar-al-Horra, a romantically dishevelled mini-Alhambra that was home to the mother of Boabdil, Granada's last Muslim ruler.
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Palacio de los Leones
The Palacio de los Leones is one of the most stunning structures within the Alhambra, and according to some, the royal harem. It was built in the second half of the 14th century under Mohammed V, at the political and artistic peak of Granada's emirate. The rooms of the palace surround Alhambra's most popular symbol, the Patio de los Leones (Lion Courtyard), a marble fountain that channelled water through the mouths of 12 carved marble lions.
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Palacio Nazaríes
This is the Alhambra's true gem, the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe, with its perfectly proportioned rooms and courtyards, intricately moulded stucco walls, beautiful tiling, fine carved wooden ceilings and elaborate stalactite-like muqarnas vaulting, all worked in mesmerising, symbolic, geometrical patterns. Arabic inscriptions proliferate in the stuccowork.
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Patio del Cuarto Dorado
You pass into this courtyard from the Mexuar, with a small fountain and the Cuarto Dorado (Golden Room) on the left. This patio was where the emirs would give audiences to their subjects. The Cuarto Dorado takes its name from its beautiful wooden ceiling, which was gilded and redecorated in the time of the Catholic Monarchs. On the other side of the patio is the entrance to the Palacio de Comares through a beautiful façade of glazed tiles, stucco and carved wood.
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Placeta de San Miguel Bajo
Placeta de San Miguel Bajo has lively café-restaurants.
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Plaza Bib-Rambla
The large, popular Plaza Bib-Rambla has restaurants, flower stalls and a central fountain with statues of giants. This square was the scene of jousting, bullfights and Inquisition burnings.
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Plaza de la Trinidad
The Plaza de la Trinidad has a couple of good tapas bars.
Showing 1-23 of 23 results
