Today was Alhambra day – the second of the three days that the holiday has been built around.
But first we had to get our PCR tests to be able to get out of the country tomorrow, so we presented ourselves to one of the international clinics in the city promptly at 9am to have our brains tickled.
After the obligatory morning coffee, it was back to the apartment for an early lunch before walking down to the main square, and hiking all the way up to the top of the hill where the Alhambra is located gazing down over the city.
The complex was begun in 1238 by the first Nasrid emir, the Muslim ruler of the area known as Al-Andalus, who wanted to separate himself from the common people in the city, then continuously modified by successive Nasrid rulers. The most significant construction campaigns, which gave the royal palaces much of their definitive character, took place in the 14th century during the reigns of Yusuf and his son Muhammad. But the Christians were already moving south inexorably, reclaiming the country, and in 1492 the last Muslim ruler peacefully ceded the Granada to, who else but, Ferdinand and Isabella. It became one of their royal courts, and the palaces were partially altered in the Renaissance style.
In 1526, Charles V of Spain, who was by then the Holy Roman Emperor, commissioned a new Renaissance-style palace in direct juxtaposition with the Nasrid palaces, but it was left uncompleted in the early 17th century. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, with its buildings occupied by squatters, the Alhambra was rediscovered following the defeat of Napoleon in the French-Spanish war when he used it as military barracks. Unfortunately Napoleon’s troops destroyed parts of the site as they retreated to deny it to the Spanish. The rediscoverers were first British intellectuals and then other American and northern European travelers. The most influential of them was Washington Irving who lived in the palace for two years while he wrote Tales of the Alhambra which brought international attention to the site. The Alhambra is now one of Spain’s major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Antonio, our guide, took us on the usual tourist route through the complex – the three palaces, the walls, the fortress, four gates, audience chamber and gardens (which are huge). The whole complex is 14 hectares or 35 acres, and relies completely on a gravity fed water system carried by aqueducts diverting streams 10km up into the mountains.
Not quite sure why we had to keep having our passport scanned at various checkpoints around the place, but you can’t beat Spanish bureaucracy.
Then back to the apartment, and out to the chinese restaurant around the corner for tea.