GRANADA
Granada
is the capital of the province with the same name, situated
in the eastern part of the region of Andalusia. Geographical
and scenic diversity charactizes the land. There is
the coastal area with its warm climate; the extensive,
fertile Genil plain; and the mountainous regions with
a colder climate, where we find the 3,481 meter Mulhacén,
the biggest peak on the peninsula of Spain. The city
of Granada is located at the foot of the sierra Nevada
mountains at the confluences of the Darro and Genil
rivers. Its unique history has bestowed it with an artistic
grandeur embracing Moorish palaces and Christian Renaissance
treasures. As the last Moorish capital on the Iberian
peninsula, it also holds great symbolic value.
The city
of Granada has been shaped by the hills, where the old
districts in the Albaicín and the Alhambra were
founded, brimming with steep, narrow streets, beautiful
nooks and crannies, and marvelous landscapes. The new
part of the city is situated on the plain, crisscrossed
by the large arteries of Gran Vía de Colón
and Calle de los Reyes Católicos, and where the
busy streets around the Cathedral are found.
The Alhambra
Granada's cathedral as seen
from Plaza Pasiegas
The Moors
crossed the strait of Gibraltar in 711 and settled in
what was then a small Visigoth town perched atop the
Alhambra hill. Here they settled, erected walls and
laid the foundation for the prosperous civilization
that would follow. It was in the 9th century when Granada
rose to importance after the fall of the Caliphate of
Córdoba. Its splendor was reached in 1238, when
Mohammed ben Nasar founded the Nasrid dynasty, and the
kingdom of Granada stretched from Gibraltar to Murcia.
This dynasty bore twenty kings until King Boabdil was
forced to surrender Granada to the Catholic monarchs,
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1492. During three
centuries, a magnificent and rich Islamic culture flourished,
leaving Granada with architectural marvels of the caliber
of the Alhambra, declared a World Heritage Site, along
with the Generalife and the Albaicín.
Please feel free to browse oour website or
CONTACT US NOW !!
|
