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Articles · People & legends

Granada's People and Legends (Page 2)

This section profiles the people who shaped Granada, from the last Nasrid sultan Boabdil and vizier-chronicler Ibn al-Khatib to poet Federico García Lorca. It also covers the city's persistent legends, the tales locals still tell about its streets and hills.

Ornate courtyard arches and tiled walls inside the Nasrid Palaces of the Alhambra, evoking the women of the Alhambra Nasrid harem history that court chroniclers left mostly unrecorded, Granada, Spain

Women of the Alhambra: Power in the Nasrid Court

James Walker Updated

The Alhambra's harem was never what films imply. Behind Nasrid law, women wielded power: two sultanas ruled by regency, one captive became a sultan's favourite.

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The marble tomb of Isabella I and Ferdinand II by Domenico Fancelli in the Royal Chapel of Granada, with Isabelline Gothic vaulting and the gilded reja mayor grille in the background

Isabella of Castile in Granada: The Queen Who Chose Her Tomb Here

James Walker Updated

Isabella and Ferdinand are buried together in Granada's Royal Chapel — her 1504 will chose the city over Toledo, and their tomb took 17 years to build.

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View of the olive groves and hills near Fuente Grande, between Víznar and Alfacar, where Federico García Lorca was executed in August 1936, with the Sierra de Huétor in the distance

Lorca's Last Day: The 48 Hours That Killed Spain's Greatest Poet

James Walker Updated

Federico García Lorca was arrested on 16 August 1936 and shot by a firing squad near Víznar before midnight on 18 August — his last 48 hours, hour by hour.

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Interior of the Hall of the Two Sisters in the Alhambra Granada at dusk, carved Arabic stucco inscriptions by ibn zamrak alhambra poet visible in the frieze below a muqarnas honeycomb dome, warm amber light

Ibn Zamrak: the poet whose words are carved into the Alhambra

James Walker Updated

Ibn Zamrak (1333–1393), pupil of Ibn al-Khatib, was the Nasrid court poet whose Arabic verses were carved into the Alhambra's Court of the Lions and stucco.

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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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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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