Province & Villages - Granada - Albaicin
Albaicin information
Albaicín
One of the possible points of access to this neighbourhood
is via the puerta de Elvira, one of the most important
of Granada's many gateways.
Climbing the Alhabaca hill and following the walls of the alcazaba Cadima, one reaches plaza Larga and the arco
de las Pesas. From here on, one of the visitor's pleasures
is to become lost in the neighbourhood's labyrinthine streets,
without forgetting a few points of interest. The closest is
the church of Salvador, once the medina of the
ancient mosque, which still preserves its patio of
absolutions.
A visit to San Nicolás is real must, evidence
od the Catholic Monarch's systematic operations: to substitute
mosques for churches in order to Christianize a mysteriously
distant community. Having said that, the famous view of the
Alhambra from the plaza may not grant much time for historic
meditations on the conquest.
The convent of Santa Isabel la Real, in route to the
plaza of San Miguel is one of the Albaicín best kept
secrets. This convent of the Order of Santa Clara was founded
by Queen Isabel in the early 16th and can be accessed by a
gateway which hides it from the road. The gate's decoration
is reminiscent of the Capilla Real, while its strikingly
high altar encourages the viewer to contamplate the ceiling's múdejar framework with its Plateresque decoration.
Now in the plaza of San Miguel Bajo, visit the church
dedicated to the former and closeby take a walk down a tiny
alley leading to the casa palacio de Dar-al-Horra,
an example of domestic Morisco architecture, the palace
was lived in by the mother of Boabdil.
In the same plaza, the mirador de la Lona grants us
another esplendid view: the Gran Vía, railway station
and, above all, the Elvira mountains on the skirts of which
ancient city was established. In the direction of the calle
San Juan de los Reyes, one now passes the church of San
José, what was once possibly the oldest mosque
in Granada. From here, you will inevitably arrive at San
Gregorio and calle Calderería, in this street
while you sip a glass of tea or hear the call of the prayer
from the nearby mosque, it is tempting to contemplate the
capricious nature of history.
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