The Royal Chapel of Granada, or Capilla Real, was commissioned in 1504 by Isabella I and Ferdinand II as their own burial place. Granada was the city the Catholic Monarchs had taken from the Nasrid sultanate in 1492, the event that completed the Reconquest as they understood it. Inside, an ornate iron grille separates the public nave from a chancel holding four royal tombs, and an adjoining sacristy holds one of the most complete collections of a monarch's personal possessions anywhere: Isabella's crown, Ferdinand's sword, and the Flemish paintings she collected across her reign.
When to Visit
Best season
Year-round; less busy in November to February
Quietest hours
Opening at 10:00 Monday to Saturday
Visit duration
1 to 1.5 hours
Building a mausoleum for the Catholic Monarchs
Construction began under the architect Enrique Egas and continued with contributions from Juan Gil de Hontañón and others. The building was completed in 1517; the monarchs' remains were transferred here from their temporary burial at the Alhambra on 10 November 1521, four years later.
The Royal Chapel remains a private Catholic foundation rather than a state monument, which is why its admission and management run separately from the cathedral next door.
Fifteen weeks after Granada's surrender, the same two monarchs signed a very different document at the Santa Fe siege camp nearby: the Capitulations of Santa Fe that sent Columbus west.
Arrive right at the 10:00 opening
The chapel is small and tour groups from the nearby Cathedral circuit arrive mid-morning. Being among the first in at 10:00 gives you 30 to 40 minutes with the tombs at close range without competing for space around the reja.
Isabelline Gothic architecture and the royal tombs
The chapel follows a Latin cross plan with a single nave and four side chapels, built in the Isabelline Gothic style characteristic of the late 15th century, a late flowering of Gothic that incorporates Spanish Plateresque ornament on the exterior while keeping pointed arches and ribbed vaulting inside.
The interior is divided by a monumental wrought-iron grille, or reja, the work of Bartolomé de Jaén. Completed in 1520, it is considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Renaissance ironwork, and it separates the public nave from the chancel where the royal tombs are kept.
The four tomb monuments are arranged in two pairs. Isabella and Ferdinand lie in a marble cenotaph carved by the Florentine sculptor Domenico Fancelli, finished in 1517 — their effigies side by side, Ferdinand's figure noticeably larger, a disproportion corrected in the second monument, carved by Bartolomé Ordóñez for their daughter Joanna and her husband Philip I. Both cenotaphs are Carrara marble, carved with considerable precision. The actual lead coffins rest in the crypt below, reached by a descending stairway and protected behind a grille.