Spain Diaries: Granada

Have you ever heard of Granada? Know where it is?

There you have it Granada Spain. It’s got some epic history so bare with me as I educate you a bit as I find history interesting. Besides it helps to explain some structures. I’ll do it quickly… and probably quite horribly… but I’ll do my best.


Granada was originally part of the Roman Empire way back to start with. Then in 711 the Moors started conquering Spain and Granada became a Moorish city.


Hold on a tick you know of the Moors right? Well if you don’t know it’s a term that refers to a population of mostly Berber and Arab decent.


So the Moors took over Granada and kept most of the Roman infrastructure and so on and so forth. I’m fuzzy on what happened over the next few centuries. I’ll skip to the fun part. In 1237 Muhamad I al-Ahmar founder of the Nasrid dynasty installed his court on Sabika hill and began the construction of the Alhambra. The Alhambra is the palace fortress built by the Nasrid rulers. There are three palaces built in three different periods. On 02 Janurary 1492 the Alhambra was surrounded by the Catholic and Granada was ultimately surrendered. This marked the end of the Moorish rule in Spain and started the era of the Catholic monarchs. 1492-1516 Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon conducted extensive repairs an alterations. They installed the Royal House and the headquarters of the General Captaincy of the Kingdom of Granda in the Alhambra. And in 1870 it was declared a National Monument.


There you have it. A VERY quick history gathered from wikipedia and my guide I picked up at the Alhambra. Pretty interesting right? I would have loved to see the inside of the Alhambra but there is a certain number of visitors allowed in the palace each day and we didn’t get tickets far enough in advance. So we only got to see the grounds and gardens along with the Court of the Water Channel. Even thought it was raining it was still pretty cool.

Before we hit up the Alhambra Grounds though we swung by the Cathedral of Granada.

It houses the tomb of the Catholic Kings. The two most of us know are Isabella and Ferdinand. They have monuments above their tomb…

And their coffins with in.

I’m not going to lie it was really cool to be so close to history and to actually see the coffins of the Catholic Kings.


After visiting the Alhambra we ate a very Spanish lunch of Burger King. Lol. Then we had to find our way back to Murcia without directions. We did it but it was a wee bit frustrating. And Granada marked the end of our Irish reunion. Lenka left early the next day. Candice left the next afternoon. And Damien and I were off to Madrid the day after. Madrid marked the beginning of my adventures on my own. And that my friends is a whole other post.
Before I leave you here are a few other pictures i took while walking around.


 

Translation thanks to Ana : "You can't imagine how much I would love to be the fountain of your village, so when you come and drink, I will feeel your lips close

Cheers,