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Granada Through the Ages: A Timeline by Era

Follow Granada from Iberian Iliberis and Roman Elvira through the Zirids and the Nasrid kingdom to the Castilian conquest and the modern city. Each era gathers the monuments still standing and the articles that go deeper.

Meet the people of each era

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before 711

Iberian, Roman & Visigothic

Iberian Iliberis, a Roman municipium, and the Council of Elvira around 306 AD.

The Bastetani, an Iberian tribe, settled the hill above the Darro that later became the Albaicín, and Rome made it a municipium under Augustus in the late 1st century BC. Around 306 AD nineteen bishops met near Iliberis for the Council of Elvira, the first known church council in Hispania. The Visigoths inherited the city as Elbira, a diocese and regional centre.

Articles

  1. Roman Granada: Iliberis and the Council of Elvira

    306 Article

    Granada was Roman Iliberis for over 700 years before the Moors arrived. The Council of Elvira, c. 306 AD, was the earliest church council in all of Hispania.

711–1238

Early Islamic, Zirid & Almohad

Medina Elvira leads until 1013; then the Zirids take the hilltop and 1066 ends the Jewish Golden Age.

In this era

After Arab forces took the peninsula in 711, the settlement on the Albaicín hill became Gharnata, while nearby Medina Elvira served as the regional capital until 1013, when the Zirids moved the capital to the hilltop. They left walls, cisterns and a street plan still legible today. Under the vizier Samuel ha-Nagid the city reached the Jewish Golden Age, which ended on 30 December 1066 when a mob killed his son Joseph and thousands of Jews in a single day.

Monuments

Articles

  1. Hafsa bint al-Hajj: Granada's Poet of Love and Loss

    1154 Article

    Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rakuniyya, Granada's last major Andalusi woman poet: her Almohad-era love affair, her lover's execution and her Marrakech teaching years.

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

    1218 Article

    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.

  3. Granada City Walls: Tracing the Zirid Circuit

    Article

    Granada's oldest walls aren't at the Alhambra. Trace the 11th-century Zirid circuit through the Albaicín: surviving towers, vanished gates, Puerta de Elvira.

  4. Samuel Ha-Nagid: Granada's Warrior Poet-Vizier

    1027 Article

    Samuel ha-Nagid fled Córdoba in 1013, rose from a Málaga spice shop to command Granada's Muslim army as vizier, and helped define Hebrew's Golden Age poetry.

  5. 1066 Granada Massacre: When the Jewish Golden Age Ended in a Day

    1066 Article

    The 1066 Granada massacre killed Joseph ha-Nagid and thousands of the city's Jews in a single day, ending three decades of Jewish power under Samuel ha-Nagid.

All 10 articles

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1238–1492

Nasrid Granada

Twenty-three sultans, the Alhambra, and a kingdom kept alive by tribute to Castile.

In this era

Muhammad I founded the emirate in 1232, became Fernando III's vassal and began the Alcazaba on the Alhambra hill. Yusuf I added the Comares Tower and the Hall of Ambassadors, and Muhammad V finished the Court of the Lions around 1380. In all, 23 sultans ruled for 260 years before the city surrendered in 1492.

People

Monuments

Articles

  1. Did Hernán Pérez del Pulgar Really Nail the Ave Maria in Granada?

    1490 Article

    Did Hernán Pérez del Pulgar nail an Ave Maria to Granada's mosque door in 1490? A claim check of the royal grant, the epitaph and what later retellings added.

  2. Why Alhama de Granada's Fall in 1482 Opened the Granada War

    1482 Article

    Alhama de Granada was named for its 47 °C springs, fell to Castile in late February 1482 and lives on in the ballad Ay de mi Alhama. History and what survives.

  3. Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Battuta Came to Nasrid Granada

    1350–1365 Article

    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.

  4. The Alhambra Ceiling a German Banker Took Home to Berlin

    1302–1309 Article

    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.

  5. The Alhambra Rawda: Where Nasrid Sultans Were Buried

    1302 Article

    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.

All 33 articles

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1492–1610

Castilian conquest & the Moriscos

The last Muslim kingdom falls in 1492 and Siloé raises Spain's first Renaissance cathedral.

In this era

Boabdil handed Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella on 2 January 1492, after a siege whose camp became the town of Santa Fe. Enrique Egas drew a Gothic plan for the cathedral in 1518 and building began in 1523. Diego de Siloé, master builder from 1529, changed it into Spain's first fully Renaissance cathedral, with a circular capilla mayor.

People

Monuments

Articles

  1. Juan Latino: The Enslaved Man Who Taught Latin in Granada

    1517–1594 Article

    Juan Latino was enslaved in a duke's household, then taught Latin in Granada and printed a Lepanto epic in 1573. What the records settle, and what they don't.

  2. Francisco Suárez: the Granada Philosopher Europe Studied

    1597 Article

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

  3. Cisneros Book Burning in Granada, 1499: What Was Lost

    1499 Article

    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.

  4. Hernando de Talavera: The Archbishop Who Learned Arabic

    1493–1507 Article

    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.

  5. Eleno de Céspedes: The Alhama Surgeon Tried by the Inquisition

    1587 Article

    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.

All 28 articles

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1610–1808

Baroque & Enlightenment

Alonso Cano and the Granadan school of polychrome saints shape the Baroque city.

In this era

Alonso Cano, painter, sculptor and architect, died in Granada in 1667 and designed the front of Granada Cathedral, which was finished in 1704. The Granadan school of sculpture matured in the 17th century under Pablo de Rojas, Cano and their pupils. Their polychrome saints, with glass eyes and gilded drapery, still leave the churches for Holy Week.

Monuments

Articles

  1. Alonso Cano Granada: Painter, Sculptor, Architect

    1664 Article

    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.

  2. The Granadan School of Sculpture: Polychrome Saints

    1655 Article

    How Alonso Cano and José de Mora shaped Granada's school of sculpture: glass eyes, gold-leaf drapery, and the saints Granada still carries through Holy Week.

1808–today

Modern Granada

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

In this era

French troops held Granada from 1810 until 17 September 1812 and mined the Alhambra's towers on leaving; eight fell. On Christmas night 1884 a Mw 6.7 earthquake wrecked villages around Alhama de Granada, though not the city itself. On 20 July 1936 a garrison revolt took the centre, and the Albaicín held out under artillery fire until the 23rd.

Monuments

Articles

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

    Article

    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.

  2. Val del Omar: Granada's Pioneer of Tactile Cinema

    1904–1982 Article

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

  3. José Guerrero: Granada's Painter in New York

    1914–1991 Article

    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.

  4. Ángel Barrios, the Granada Composer Raised in an Alhambra Tavern

    1909 Article

    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.

  5. How the Rains of 1963 Scattered Sacromonte's Cave Families

    1963 Article

    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.

All 27 articles

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