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Stories, history, and planning essays from Granada (Page 3)

Long-form editorial pieces written by resident correspondents — cultural deep-dives, food traditions, and practical planning essays for visiting the city.

Terraced garden of a carmen in the Albaicín, Granada: terracotta path, stone fountain, tall cypresses and flowering vines, with the Alhambra palace filling the opposite hillside — the cármenes Albaicín Granada typology at its most characteristic

Cármenes of the Albaicín: Granada's Walled Garden Houses

James Walker Updated

Granada's cármenes are walled garden villas from Arabic karm (vineyard). Found across the Albaicín since the Nasrid period, two are open free to visitors.

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Photorealistic 16th-century scene of the lead books sacromonte granada discovery: hillside caves above the Darro with scholars and Spanish clergy examining circular lead tablets inscribed in Arabic and Latin, warm amber evening light, Alhambra fortifications visible across the valley

The Lead Books of Sacromonte — Granada's Greatest Forgery

James Walker Updated

Lead tablets found in Sacromonte's caves, 1595–1606. Condemned by the Vatican in 1682. The Morisco scholars behind Granada's greatest religious forgery.

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Exterior of Sacromonte cave houses in Granada, whitewashed facades cut into the Alhambra-Formation conglomerate hillside above the Darro River valley, with the Alhambra visible in the background

Cave houses of Sacromonte: how Granada carved its hillside

James Walker Updated

Sacromonte's cave houses were dug from Alhambra conglomerate after 1492: Romani history, the 1963 floods, the museum, the abbey, and how to stay in one.

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Fajalauza ceramics Granada — hand-painted tin-glazed earthenware plates and bowls with cobalt blue pomegranate and bird motifs on white glaze, displayed at an Albaicín workshop

Fajalauza ceramics: Granada's 500-year pottery tradition

James Walker Updated

Fajalauza ceramics are Granada's tin-glazed tradition since 1517. Cobalt blue, pomegranate motifs, and one Albaicín family still making each piece by hand.

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Exterior of the Huerta de San Vicente house-museum in Granada where Federico García Lorca wrote his major plays, white-painted Andalusian farmhouse surrounded by gardens in the Parque Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca and Granada: the city that made him

James Walker Updated

Lorca wrote his major plays in Granada, was shot nearby in 1936, and his grave has never been found. His house-museum, the grave site, and how to visit.

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Patio de la Acequia in the Generalife gardens Granada at morning light, long water channel with arching jets, myrtle hedges and cypress trees, 14th-century Nasrid colonnade pavilion at the far end

Generalife gardens Granada: water, geometry, paradise

James Walker Updated

The Generalife gardens above the Alhambra are a 14th-century argument in stone and water. Here is what the Nasrid sultans built, and why it still works.

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Narrow covered lanes of Granada's Alcaicería silk market with Moorish arches and colourful craft stalls, the historic trade district that once formed the centre of the Nasrid silk road economy

Granada Silk Road: the Alcaicería and Nasrid Silk Trade

James Walker Updated

Granada's Alcaicería was the commercial heart of a silk empire. How Nasrid silk funded the Alhambra, reached Flanders, and was dismantled by decree after 1492.

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Interior of the Nasrid Palaces, Alhambra Granada, with Arabic calligraphy and arabesque stucco covering the walls, epigraphy shaped by ibn al-khatib granada nasrid court poets

Ibn al-Khatib: Granada's Great Nasrid Vizier

James Walker Updated

Ibn al-Khatib ran Nasrid Granada for 30 years, wrote 60+ works, and argued contagion theory 500 years before Pasteur. His poetry lines the Alhambra walls.

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Rows of Trevélez ham legs hanging from beams inside a traditional Alpujarras secadero, shafts of light through ventilation slats, jamon de trevelez alpujarras IGP curing at altitude

Jamón de Trevélez and Alpujarras: altitude curing

Sarah Mills Updated

Jamón de Trevélez IGP: cured at 1,476m in the Alpujarras by cold mountain air, not salt. How the blue/red/black seals work and where to buy in Granada.

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Carmen de la Antequeruela, Manuel de Falla's Granada home at Paseo de los Mártires 11, white-walled Andalusian carmen with garden, Alhambra hill visible in the background

Manuel de Falla in Granada: Composer, Exile, Legacy

James Walker Updated

Manuel de Falla lived in Granada from 1921 to 1939, composing at the foot of the Alhambra and co-organising the landmark 1922 Cante Jondo contest with Lorca.

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Interior view looking up into nasrid architecture muqarnas dome in the Hall of Two Sisters, Alhambra Granada, honeycomb of stucco mocárabe cells radiating from a central eight-pointed star, raking natural light

Nasrid Architecture: Muqarnas, Mocárabes, and Zellige Explained

James Walker Updated

Muqarnas, mocárabes, zellige: the three techniques behind the Alhambra's ornament. What each is, how craftsmen made it, and where to see it in Granada.

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Circular courtyard of the Palacio de Carlos V Alhambra at golden hour, 32 Doric columns casting long shadows on stone paving, open sky above, Renaissance architecture inside Islamic palace complex

Palacio de Carlos V: the Alhambra's Renaissance Paradox

James Walker Updated

The Palacio de Carlos V sat roofless for 330 years. Now it holds Granada's finest Nasrid art. Circular courtyard, two free museums, one great paradox.

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