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Stories, history and food traditions from Granada (Page 8)

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.

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 is officially IGP, not DOP: cured at 1,476m with salt under 5%. How the blue, red and black seals work, and where to buy it 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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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

Charles V's Renaissance palace inside the Alhambra: circular courtyard finished 1637, roof not completed until 1967. Now free museums for EU visitors today.

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Pionono pastry Granada: cylindrical rolled sponge on a white paper wafer with caramelized golden cream dome on top, sitting on a wooden counter inside Casa Ysla bakery in Santa Fe

Pionono pastry: Granada's papal sweet and its 1897 origin

Sarah Mills Updated

A single pastry chef in Santa Fe, 1897, rolled sponge around egg-yolk cream and named it after a pope. Why Granada's iconic sweet has outlasted everything else.

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Narrow lane in the Realejo Jewish quarter of Granada climbing toward the Alhambra hill, white-walled houses and walled carmen gardens, former site of the medieval judería Garnata al-Yahud

Realejo Jewish Quarter Granada: A Neighbourhood Built on Erasure

James Walker Updated

The Realejo was Granada's medieval Jewish quarter, home to Samuel HaNagid. Walk it today and you're crossing the site of a 1066 massacre and a 1492 expulsion.

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Taracea granada marquetry workshop surface showing cedar, nacre, and bone inlay star pattern in geometric Islamic design, Granada

Taracea Granada Marquetry: The Craft Behind the Alhambra

James Walker Updated

Taracea is Granada's wood marquetry tradition, alive since the Nasrid Kingdom. How the inlay technique works, where it came from, and how to spot a fake.

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Zambra cave flamenco performance in Sacromonte Granada, dancer in white dress mid-step inside a whitewashed limestone cave with low vaulted ceiling and warm lantern light

Zambra Cave Flamenco: Sacromonte's Living Ritual

James Walker Updated

Zambra is Granada's flamenco form, born in Sacromonte's limestone caves from a Moorish-Romani fusion. Three acts, 500 years of history, still performed nightly.

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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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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: the stalactite stucco vaulting in the Alhambra's Hall of Two Sisters, ~5,000 carved cells. How it differs from mocárabes and zellige tiles today.

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