Top Historic Sights in Granada, Spain
Explore the historic highlights of Granada
Palace of Charles V
The Palace of Charles V is a Renaissance building located on the top of the hill of the Assabica, inside the Nasrid fortification of the Alhambra. The building has never been a home to a monarch and stood roofless until 1957. The structure was commanded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces. Although the Catholic Monarchs had already altered some rooms of ...
Founded: 1526 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Alhambra
The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada. It was originally constructed as a small fortress in AD 889 on the remains of Roman fortifications, and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by the Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada, who built its current palace and walls. It was converted into a royal palace in 1333 by Yusuf I, Su ...
Founded: 889 AD |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Granada Cathedral
Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of Granada Cathedral was not begun until the sixteenth century, after acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492. While its earliest plans had Gothic designs, such as are evident in the Royal Chapel of Granada by Enrique Egas, most of the church"s construction occurred when the Spanish Renaissance style was supplanting the Gothic in Spanis ...
Founded: 1518 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Corral del Carbón
The Corral del Carbón is a 14th-century monument located in the Spanish city of Granada (Andalusia). It is the only Nasrid alhóndiga (an establishment where grain was sold) preserved in its entirety in the Iberian peninsula. It was built during the Nasrid reign before 1336, and his original name was Al-Funduq al-Gidida or New Alhóndiga. Located south of the Muslim city, next to the silk market or Alcaicerí ...
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Generalife
The Palacio de Generalife was the summer palace and country estate of the Nasrid rulers of the Emirate of Granada. The palace and gardens were built during the reign of Muhammed II (1273-1302), Sultan of Granada, and later by Muhammed III (1302–1309). They were redecorated shortly after by Abu I-Walid Isma"il (1313–1324). Much of the garden is a recent reconstruction of dubious authenticity. The complex consists ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Arabian Baths
Tucked away underneath a private house about halfway along the Carrera del Darro are the oldest and best-preserved Arabic baths in Spain. The Banuelo dates from around the 11th century and its elegant Moorish archways and domed ceilings are still amazingly intact after a thousand years (although the baths themselves have long since vanished). Undoubtedly, after the Alhambra and the Generalife, this is the greatest surv ...
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Archaeological Museum of Granada
The Archaeological Museum of Granada was established in 1879. It is located in the Castril palace, dating from the 16th century. It hosts many artefacts from the many different civilizations that settled in Granada including the Carthaginians, the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Arabs. It includes a beautiful Renaissance patio. The building"s façade was created in 1593.
Founded: 1879 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Albaicín
The Albaicín retains the narrow winding streets of its Medieval Moorish past dating back to the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984, along with the Alhambra. In the Albaicín there are numerous monuments from different periods, mainly the Nasrid period and the Renaissance. The traditional type of house is the carmen, consisting of a freestanding house surrounded by a high wall that ...
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Silla del Moro
Silla del Moro is a small castle built in the 14th century and ruined in the 17th century. It was built to protect the water system for Generalife and Alhambra palaces and surrounding gardens.
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Monasterio de San Jerónimo
The Royal Monastery of St. Jerome is a Hieronymite monastery in Granada. Architecturally, it is in the Renaissance style. The church, famous for its architecture, was the first in the world consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The monastery was founded by the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in Santa Fe outside the city of Granada, during the siege of the latter city, ...
Founded: 1504 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Sacromonte Monastery
The Abbey of El Sacromonte was founded in the 17th century. Under the church there are the catacombs where St. Cecilio, the first bishop and actual Patron of Granada, suffered martyrdom. The monument was designed by Juan de Maeda and finished in 1567. The front façade, by Pedro de Orea, is a magnificent example of the Renaissance period in Andalusia at the end of the 16th century.
Founded: 16th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Granada Charterhouse
Granada Charterhouse 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 Churrigueres ...
Founded: 1506 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Alcázar Genil
The Alcázar Genil is a Muslim-era palace in the city of Granada. It was originally called al-Qasr al-Sayyid ('the palace of the lord') and is located beside the River Genil outside the Alhambra"s walls. Today, only a pavilion of the palace is preserved. It was built in 1218 or 1219 by Sayyid Ishaq, a member of the Almohad dynasty. In 1237, Muhammad I of the Nasrid dynasty took over Granada and the dynasty ...
Founded: 1218 |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright alancowper
Historic Site of the week
Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle
Easter Aquhorthies stone circle, located near Inverurie, is one of the best-preserved examples of a recumbent stone circle, and one of the few that still have their full complement of stones. It consists of a ring of nine stones, eight of which are grey granite and one red jasper. Two more grey granite stones flank a recumbent of red granite flecked with crystals and lines of quartz. The circle is particularly notable for its builders' use of polychromy in the stones, with the reddish ones situated on the SSW side and the grey ones opposite.
The placename Aquhorthies derives from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning 'field of prayer', and may indicate a 'long continuity of sanctity' between the Stone or Bronze Age circle builders and their much later Gaelic successors millennia later. The circle's surroundings were landscaped in the late 19th century, and it sits within a small fenced and walled enclosure. A stone dyke, known as a roundel, was built around the circle some time between 1847 and 1866–7.