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Articles · Modern Granada

Modern Granada: Articles from the Napoleonic Years to Today

French mines under the Alhambra, the 1884 quake, and the garrison revolt of July 1936.

These articles follow Granada from the French occupation to the present: the mined Alhambra towers, the 1884 earthquake, the garrison revolt of July 1936, and the writers and musicians the city produced. For readers who want the modern city's backstory.

27 articles · 1808–today

Modern Granada in Granada, 1808–today

Articles on Modern Granada

Pan de alfacar loaves, round hogazas and elongated bollos with pointed ends and golden unfloured crusts, cooling on wooden boards beside a refractory-floor bread oven in Alfacar, warm morning light

Pan de Alfacar: Why Granada's PGI Bread Comes From Two Villages

Sarah Mills

Pan de Alfacar is a PGI loaf baked only in Alfacar and Víznar with spring water, sourdough and a refractory-floor oven. The four formats and who bakes it.

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Val del Omar Granada filmmaker tribute: an Alhambra water channel and slender arches reflected in still water, tinted green like a 1950s 35 mm film frame, soft low light, fine film grain

Val del Omar: Granada's Pioneer of Tactile Cinema

James Walker

Val del Omar, the Granada filmmaker behind tactile vision: from Pedagogical Missions projectionist to Aguaespejo granadino, and where to meet him today.

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José Guerrero painter Granada: a large abstract canvas of black and ochre masses on a bright white gallery wall, a visitor seen from behind in a quiet modern exhibition room

José Guerrero: Granada's Painter in New York

James Walker

José Guerrero, Granada's painter of the New York School: cathedral bell ringer, Betty Parsons exhibitor, the 1965 return and the free Centro on Calle Oficios.

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Ángel Barrios Granada composer and guitarist, evoked by a courtyard fountain on Calle Real de la Alhambra: a guitar resting on a wooden chair beside whitewashed walls in late afternoon light

Ángel Barrios, the Granada Composer Raised in an Alhambra Tavern

James Walker

Ángel Barrios grew up in El Polinario, his father's tavern on Calle Real de la Alhambra, and became Falla's landlord, friend and compadre. What survives.

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Sacromonte flood 1963 setting today: whitewashed cave dwellings on the hillside above the Darro valley in low morning light, agave in the foreground, no people

How the Rains of 1963 Scattered Sacromonte's Cave Families

James Walker

Weeks of rain in 1963 brought down Sacromonte's caves. Who was rehoused at Santa Juliana, El Chinarral and La Virgencica, and what the zambra tradition lost.

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Lanjaron water spring pavilion at the Balneario de Lanjarón, a two-storey brick building with a side tower on the Bordaila hill, Sierra Nevada slopes behind in soft morning light

Lanjaron Water: The Sierra Nevada Spa Town Explained

James Walker

Lanjaron water comes from a Sierra Nevada town with 50-plus springs. See how a disputed 1774 discovery, a state-sold spa and a bottling plant made the brand.

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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

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.

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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

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.

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Gerald Brenan Yegen: whitewashed flat-roofed houses of Yegen on a mountain slope in the Alpujarras, soft afternoon light, terraced fields and the Sierra Nevada behind

Gerald Brenan in Yegen: When Bloomsbury Came to the Alpujarras

James Walker

Gerald Brenan in Yegen: how Strachey, Carrington and the Woolfs reached his Alpujarran hamlet, what South from Granada records, and what you can still see.

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Gran via de colon granada history: a straight early twentieth-century avenue of new apartment blocks cutting through narrow medieval lanes beside the cathedral's rear facade, sepia light

Gran Via de Colon Granada History: The Cut Through the Medina

James Walker

How Granada's Gran Via de Colon was cut through the medieval medina from 1895: the Cendoya plan, 244 expropriations, lost Nasrid houses and who paid for it.

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Granada earthquakes landscape: the Vega de Granada basin below the snow-capped Sierra Nevada at dawn, faint fault-line ridges crossing the plain, illustration with no people

Why Granada Earthquakes Keep Coming: The 2026 Series and 1884

James Walker

Two Mw 4.8 quakes hit south of Granada in August 2026. Basin faults, plate collision and the 1884 Alhama disaster explain why, and what visitors should know.

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Whitewashed lanes of the Albaicín in Granada at dusk, the hillside district that resisted the July 1936 coup, with the Alhambra towers across the Darro valley

July 1936 Coup in Granada: How the City Fell

James Walker

The July 1936 coup in Granada, day by day: the garrison revolt of 20 July, the Albaicín's barricades under artillery fire, the surrender and the repression.

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