What to See in Granada - Top Sights and Attractions

Fortified hilltop Moorish complex. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture.

The complex was begun in 1238 by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the first Nasrid emir and founder of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state of Al-Andalus. It was built on the Sabika hill, an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada which had been the site of earlier fortresses and of the 11th-century palace of Samuel ibn Naghrillah. Later Nasrid rulers continuously modified the site. The most significant construction campaigns, which gave the royal palaces much of their definitive character, took place in the 14th century during the reigns of Yusuf I and Muhammad V. After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492, the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (where Christopher Columbus received royal endorsement for his expedition), and the palaces were partially altered. In 1526, Charles V of Spain commissioned a new Renaissance-style palace in direct juxtaposition with the Nasrid palaces, but it was left uncompleted in the early 17th century. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, with its buildings occupied by squatters, the Alhambra was rediscovered following the defeat of Napoleon I, whose troops destroyed parts of the site. The rediscoverers were first British intellectuals and then other American and northern European Romantic travelers. The most influential of them was Washington Irving, whose Tales of the Alhambra (1832) brought international attention to the site. The Alhambra was one of the first Islamic monuments to become the object of modern scientific study and has been the subject of numerous restorations since the 19th century. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

During the Nasrid era, the Alhambra was a self-contained city separate from the rest of Granada below. It contained most of the amenities of a Muslim city such as a Friday mosque, hammams (public baths), roads, houses, artisan workshops, a tannery, and a sophisticated water supply system. As a royal city and citadel, it contained at least six major palaces, most of them located along the northern edge where they commanded views over the Albaicín quarter. The most famous and best-preserved are the Mexuar, the Comares Palace, the Palace of the Lions, and the Partal Palace, which form the main attraction to visitors today. The other palaces are known from historical sources and from modern excavations. At the Alhambra's western tip is the Alcazaba fortress. Multiple smaller towers and fortified gates are also located along the Alhambra's walls. Outside the Alhambra walls and located nearby to the east is the Generalife, a former Nasrid country estate and summer palace accompanied by historic orchards and modern landscaped gardens.

The architecture of the Nasrid palaces reflects the tradition of Moorish architecture developed over previous centuries. It is characterized by the use of the courtyard as a central space and basic unit around which other halls and rooms were organized. Courtyards typically had water features at their center, such as a reflective pool or a fountain. Decoration was focused on the inside of the building and was executed primarily with tile mosaics on lower walls and carved stucco on the upper walls. Geometric patterns, vegetal motifs, and Arabic inscriptions were the main types of decorative motifs. Additionally, "stalactite"-like sculpting, known as muqarnas, was used for three-dimensional features like vaulted ceilings.^[2]

Museum in Granada, Spain. Parque de las Ciencias is a science centre and museum, part of the European Network of Science Centers and Museums, located in the city of Granada, Andalusia, Spain. Parque de las Ciencias, under the motto "A new kind of Museum", was founded in 1990 and opened in 1995. The museum has been solely directed by Ernesto Páramo Sureda since it’s establishment, throughout the museum project and it’s successive expansions. It occupies 70,000 m2 and holds permanent and temporary exhibitions, including: a planetarium, educational facilities, café, restaurant, bookshop, library, cinemas, etc. It has a cultural gallery, consisting of several versatile and flexible spaces, with different capacities, ranging from 50 to 550 in number. Some of the museum’s highlights are its Plastination Lab and Restoration and Production Workshops.

Parque de las Ciencias council members consists of: The University of Granada, The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, which is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spanish), the local, provincial and regional governments and The Caja Granada Foundation. Some of the museum’s highlights are it’s 'Windows to Science' and 'Live Science', which through crystal bounded spaces, provides the visitors with a scientific insight, as performed in actual labs.^[7]

Palace in Granada, Spain. The Castril palace is a Renaissance style palace located in Sacromonte, a district of the Spanish city of Granada. Nowadays it hosts the Archaeological Museum of Granada.

The house is nailed in the Race of the Darro, in the old Arab district of Ajsaris, seat of 16th century's granadine nobility. The palace is one of the best Renaissance palaces of Granada and belonged to the family of Hernando de Zafra, secretary of Catholic monarchs who participated actively in reconquering it from the Muslim hands during the Reconquista.

At the top of the facade the date of its foundation is recorded: 1539. This work has been attributed to Sebastián de Alcántara, one of the most outstanding disciples of Diego de Siloé. In 1917, the Castril palace was acquired by arabist and orientalist Leopoldo Eguílaz y Yanguas to make it a definitive location of the Archaeological Museum of Granada.^[11]

1500s structure with flamboyant details. Granada Charterhouse is a Carthusian monastery in Granada, Spain. It is one of the finest examples of Spanish Baroque architecture.

The charterhouse was founded in 1506; construction started ten years later, and continued for the following 300 years. While the exterior is a tame ember in comparison, the interior of the monastery's is a flamboyant explosion of ornamentation. Its complex echoing geometric surfaces make of it one of the masterpieces of Churrigueresque style. The most striking features include the tabernacle, constructed to a design by Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo, the church and the famous sacristy, built between 1727 and 1764 by Luis de Arévalo and F. Manuel Vasquez. The charterhouse displays an extensive collection of paintings, prominent among which the works of Fray Juan Sánchez Cotán.^[15]

The Palace of the Forgotten is a museum in Granada, Spain, dedicated to the Spanish Inquisition, Jewish history, and Granada's and Andalusia's heritage. The building is located in the Albaicín, a neighbourhood declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994 as an extension of the monumental complex of the Alhambra and the Generalife.

The museum occupies the symbolic Casa-Palacio de Santa Inés (Palace-House of St. Agnes), a restored 16th century building declared Bien de Interés Cultural (heritage site of cultural interest). On its façade there is an unidentified coat of arms, with features suggesting it belonged to a converted Jew who intended to show based on heraldry his status of pureza de sangre (blood purity). The museum, opened in 2014, also offers guided tours after previous booking.^[16]