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Stories, history and food traditions from Granada

Long-form editorial pieces written by resident correspondents: cultural deep-dives, the origins of local dishes, and the people and traditions that shape everyday life in Granada.

Stone pomegranate carvings above the Puerta de las Granadas arch in Granada, the granada pomegranate symbol against carved Renaissance stonework

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Granada's pomegranate symbol: from conquest to convergence

James Walker Updated 12 August 2026 at 18:42

A pomegranate sits on Spain's royal coat of arms — Ferdinand and Isabella's 1492 Granada conquest trophy, once revered by Nasrid rulers as paradise's fruit.

Convent sweets Granada torno — whitewashed convent wall with wooden revolving hatch, small parcels of dulces conventuales including almendrados and tocinillos wrapped in brown paper, morning light through arched doorway

Convent Sweets in Granada: Buying Dulces Through the Torno

Sarah Mills Updated 7 August 2026 at 11:16

Nine convents in Granada sell sweets through the torno, a revolving shelf in the convent wall. Cash only, mornings only, and the greeting ritual is mandatory.

The Court of the Myrtles reflecting pool in the Nasrid Palaces, Alhambra, Granada, a central element of the alhambra water system with the Comares Tower reflected in still water

The Alhambra's Water System: Engineering of the Nasrid Palaces

James Walker Updated 16 September 2026 at 11:51

Every fountain in the Alhambra runs by gravity alone — no pumps. See how the 7km Acequia Real aqueduct and Nasrid engineers built water pressure by design.

Century-old Granada vermouth bodega interior at midday vermut hour: a glass of red vermouth over ice with a citrus twist and olive next to a free tapa plate and a glass sifón, dark wood counter, hanging jamón and wine barrels in warm golden light

Why Granada Drinks Vermouth: The Bodega Ritual

Sarah Mills 23 September 2026 at 16:55

In Granada, ordering a vermouth around noon still gets a free tapa, unasked, at bodegas like Castañeda, serving vermouth as its signature drink since 1927.

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White-walled village of Bubión in the Alpujarras above Granada, flat launa-sealed rooftop terraces and tinao covered street passages on a steep Sierra Nevada hillside at midday, illustrating Alpujarras Morisco villages history architecture

The Alpujarras Villages: Morisco Refuge After 1492

James Walker Updated 8 October 2026 at 11:53

After 1492, the Alpujarras sheltered Granada's Morisco community for 80 years. Their tinaos, acequia channels, Berber chimneys, and flat launa roofs survive.

A weathered domed shrine beside an old sandstone gate in Fez's medina wall, warm late-afternoon light, cypress trees, no modern signage, evoking Boabdil's lost tomb

Boabdil's Lost Tomb: Searching for It in Fez, Morocco

James Walker Updated 29 September 2026 at 16:20

Where is Boabdil buried? A 17th-century account points to a shrine outside Fez's Bab Mahrouk gate, and a 2013 scan detected bones nobody was allowed to test.

Sierra Nevada ski resort history in one frame: Pradollano's hotel blocks and apartment terraces at dawn, chairlift towers climbing out of the village toward the snowfields of the Veleta ridge, the Mediterranean haze of the Vega below

Sierra Nevada Ski Resort: How Granada Built It

James Walker Updated 28 September 2026 at 14:52

How Granada built Europe's southernmost ski resort: Ganivet's Andalusian Finland dream, the 1935 Veleta road, Cetursa's 1964 lifts, and the 1996 FIS Worlds.

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Ibn Khaldun in Granada: fourteenth-century scholar in a long robe crossing a sunlit Nasrid courtyard, slender columns and arcade behind, a small fountain in the foreground, warm afternoon light

Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Battuta Came to Nasrid Granada

James Walker 19 October 2026 at 06:30

Ibn Battuta reached Granada in 1350 and never met the sultan; Ibn Khaldun came in the early 1360s and fell out with Ibn al-Khatib. What each saw at court.

Francisco Suárez, the Granada philosopher: a sixteenth-century Jesuit scholar in a black cassock at a candlelit writing desk, folios of the Disputationes Metaphysicae stacked beside him, warm chiaroscuro light

Francisco Suárez: the Granada Philosopher Europe Studied

James Walker 19 October 2026 at 05:08

Francisco Suárez, Jesuit philosopher born in Granada in 1548: his Disputationes Metaphysicae, plus the birthplace plaque, monument and archive Granada keeps.

Torre de las Damas of the Alhambra reflected in the Partal pool at dusk, the tower whose cupola is now in Berlin

The Alhambra Ceiling a German Banker Took Home to Berlin

James Walker Updated 19 October 2026 at 09:37

The dome in the Alhambra's Torre de las Damas is a 1960s copy. How Arthur von Gwinner got the original to Berlin, and what Spain did when his heirs sold it.

Excavated Alhambra Rawda, the Nasrid tombs of the royal cemetery, empty trapezoid graves in a walled garden beside Calle Real Baja at dusk, Granada

The Alhambra Rawda: Where Nasrid Sultans Were Buried

James Walker 18 October 2026 at 00:00

The Nasrid royal cemetery sits beside the Partal, across Calle Real Baja. Who lay there, why it was found empty, and where the sultans' tombstones are now.

Alcazar Genil Granada: central qubba between two lateral pavilions behind a restored Andalusi garden of myrtle, lavender and pomegranate trees, soft morning light

Alcazar Genil, Granada's Riverside Palace That Lost Its Pool

James Walker Updated 19 October 2026 at 09:37

Alcazar Genil in Granada today: one 13th-century qubba, two 1892 wings, a garden and the great pool inside a metro station. Free weekday visits, how to go.

White-gloved hands turn a page of an aged Arabic manuscript on a cushioned book support in a wood-shelved archive reading room

Cisneros Book Burning in Granada, 1499: What Was Lost

James Walker 17 October 2026 at 09:00

Cisneros burned Arabic books in Granada in 1499, but the numbers, the square and Heine's famous line are shakier. A claim check of what the record supports.

Alonso Cano in Granada: the circular Capilla Mayor of Granada Cathedral in late afternoon light, large Baroque canvases on the life of the Virgin set between pale pilasters beneath the blue and gold dome

Alonso Cano Granada: Painter, Sculptor, Architect

James Walker 15 October 2026 at 10:11

Alonso Cano's Granada: a Seville duel in 1638, a disputed canonry, and the cathedral paintings and facade left behind by Spain's tempestuous Michelangelo.

Visitor looks up at Alhambra inscriptions: a band of Arabic calligraphy above shield medallions and a tiled dado

Alhambra Inscriptions Meaning: There Is No Victor but God

James Walker 15 October 2026 at 08:17

The Nasrid motto wa la ghalib illa Allah, no victor but God, recurs across the Alhambra's walls. What it means, where the legend comes from and how to spot it.

Garden of the Mezquita Mayor de Granada on the Albaicín hill at golden hour, with the Alhambra visible across the Darro valley, soft warm light, photorealistic

Mezquita Mayor de Granada: Why It Took 511 Years

James Walker 14 October 2026 at 08:21

The Mezquita Mayor de Granada opened in 2003, 511 years after the conquest. How land, money and local hostility delayed the Albaicín mosque for two decades.

Hernando de Talavera, first archbishop of Granada, in Hieronymite habit teaching a small group of Morisco boys by candlelight in a Granada study

Hernando de Talavera: The Archbishop Who Learned Arabic

James Walker 13 October 2026 at 09:04

Hernando de Talavera, Granada's first archbishop, learned Arabic, ran a school for Morisco boys and kept the 1491 terms. Why his gentle method fell short.

Eugenie de Montijo Granada: painted facade with frescoes and trompe-l'oeil on Calle de Gracia in the Magdalena district, a stone plaque beside the door, soft morning light on a narrow old-town street

Eugénie de Montijo: The Empress of France Born in Granada

James Walker 13 October 2026 at 08:35

Born in Granada in 1826 to a father under police watch, a future empress of France left in 1828. See her birth house, plaque, statue and street in the centre.

Eleno de Céspedes as a sixteenth-century surgeon in dark period dress holding a leather instrument case on Toledo's Zocodover square at dusk, arcaded buildings behind, cool light, painterly realism

Eleno de Céspedes: The Alhama Surgeon Tried by the Inquisition

James Walker 12 October 2026 at 12:00

Born a slave in Alhama de Granada, Eleno de Céspedes served in the Alpujarras war, qualified as a surgeon and was tried before the Toledo Inquisition in 1587.