Walking Grenada

Tuesday, April 28


We decided to take a walking tour offered by "Feel the City Tours", and it was a wise choice.  Our young, enthusiastic, Granada-loving (and very handsome!) guide, Antonio, aka "Nono", gave us a great overview of this historic city, which Isabella and Ferdinand decided to make the capital of the Spain their marriage and the conquest of the Moors united.

We began at the square named for Isabella, under the statue depicting her with Christopher Columbus unfurling the long (and longtime coming) contract that sealed the deal cementing her sponsorship of his explorations.  Our first stop was at the Corral del Carbon, the last remaining of fourteen original Moorish caravanserai housing traveling merchants. The 14th century fountain remains, but the structure's functions have changed over seven centuries to include coal yard, apartment complex, theater, and finally, the municipal offices and protected historic monument of today.

Nearby is the original Moorish silk market, the Alcaiceria, which was a warren of narrow passageways and 200 shops, all selling silk.  After the Muslims were driven out by the Christians in the 15th century, the shops remained, though their offerings grew to include more than silk.  A fire in 1850 destroyed the market, but it was soon rebuilt as a tourist souk, which is pretty much what it is today.  I expect that most of the items currently sold arrived on a boat from China, but it's an evocative place, nonetheless.

The cafe-and-chocolate-churro center of Granada must be the Bib Rambla, another square dating from the time of the Moors, when it was the center of life for Muslims fleeing expulsion from other parts of Spain.  It was "remodeled" by Isabella after the Reconquista, and later, during the 16th century Inquisition, the scene of book burnings and executions; it's hard to imagine that history today.

Granada's cathedral facade is simply massive, and it overpowers the small square it faces.  We saw just the exterior this morning, but returned this afternoon to enter the church and adjacent Royal Chapel, so more on them later.  One unusual element of the exterior was the presence of red graffiti-like lettering on the walls of the cathedral.  Nono explained the custom of allowing university students to proclaim their graduation by writing their names and "vitor" (victory) on the facade of the church. This early social media continues to this day in some Spanish university cities.

After leaving the "centro" neighborhood, we ventured into the Albayzin, the old Moorish quarter.  Simply crossing one "border" street seemed to bring us back to the narrow lanes of the souks in Morocco! We didn't venture too far into this area but were able to get a sense of its white houses, markets, and tea shops.  While there, we had our clearest view yet of the Alhambra, high on a hill across the Darro River.  We'll see it up close and personal tomorrow.

After heading back downhill from the Albayzin, we bid farewell to Nono and ended the tour in the shadow of the Alhambra in the Plaza Nueva.  We'd recommend "Feel the City Tours" to visitors here, and, if our stamina holds out, we'll probably take their evening tour of the Albayzin and Sacromonte districts tomorrow.  Stay tuned...


We decided to have lunch on the terrace of our apartment, and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to recharge before heading out again this afternoon.

We returned to the cathedral and found the airy and bright white interior a great contrast to its massive, hulking, and dark exterior. The main altar glowed with well-lit gold and silver ornament; the organ, with its silver-accented pipes, was huge, and the illuminated 16th century Gregorian chant music sheets in the apse were beautiful.

Royal Chapel, (No Foto, Spanish for No Photos) which is adjacent to the cathedral, houses the tombs of Isabella and Ferdinand in grand style.  Their marble tombs, ornately carved in Italy from their death masks, sit atop the crypt housing the simple metal coffins containing their remains.  Given similar treatment are a toddler grandson, and their daughter, Juana (the Mad) and son-in-law, Philip (the Handsome); now doesn't that sound like a soap opera?!?  In addition to the tombs, the Royal Chapel contains a massive and highly detailed altarpiece, Isabella's rather plain crown and decidedly-not-plain illuminated prayer book, Ferdinand's sword, and what remained of the queen's art collection after Napoleon passed through.  For some reason, he left behind some notable Italian, Flemish and Spanish paintings, which are on display in the chapel's small museum.

Our last stop of the afternoon was at the Monastery of St. Jerome, which Ferdinand and Isabella founded upon the Reconquista in 1492.  One lovely cloister (of two), chapels, refectory, and sacristy were open to the public, but the real star of the show there was the church, with its amazingly high and ornate altarpiece and fresco-covered pillars and ceiling.  It was especially impressive, given that the monastery is not mentioned in either of the guidebooks we've been using.  (We'd read about it after seeing that it was one of the attractions included with the Granada Cards we'd purchased, and decided it merited a visit; it did.)

That was it for the afternoon, so we headed home and called it a day.  A good day, in a fine city.