The Grandeur of Granada
By Kayla Ruggiero
We woke up and had breakfast in Seville one last time before heading to our next destination in Spain: Granada. By now, we’ve all grown accustomed to the long, winding bus rides, spending hours watching the countryside roll by outside the window. As we approached Granada, the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains caught us off guard. After enduring Seville’s relentless 101-degree heat, the cool mountain views felt like a promise of relief. We arrived in Granada after 3 hours (also known as a Kaedyn 15 minutes) and were greeted by clear skies and a much more manageable 80-degree breeze. We had some downtime before heading out for the day’s only scheduled activity, a walking tour of Granada’s historic city center.
While walking from our hotel to our first stop, the Cathedral of Granada, our tour guide gave us an overview of this historic city. Before the Catholic reconquest shaped Granada into the city we see today, Muslims were 90% of the population, and before them, the Romans inhabited the city. The remains of what once was have been either destroyed, repurposed, or still lie beneath the modern city.
We arrived at the Cathedral, nestled in the former Muslim medina, a location completely unexpected. Our guide kept reiterating a theme that quickly became evident: “the most beautiful monuments are hidden; they are embedded in a modern city.” Built on the site of the city’s former main mosque, it features an eclectic blend of styles: a Gothic façade, a Renaissance interior, and Baroque elements added over the course of its 181-year construction. It was clear that the Cathedral was having a bit of an identity crisis – which we found to be common in the architecture of Granada. Despite this clash in design, the splendor of the Cathedral is unmistakable. Ten stained glass windows casting a kaleidoscope of colors encircle the dome designed to emulate heaven. Hand painted depictions of the Trinity, Incarceration, Passion, and Death of Jesus Christ line the interior. Tucked away in a hallway of the Cathedral stands the original Immaculate Conception sculpture. It was near impossible to imagine that this space was once a place of worship for Muslims of Granada. The only visible remnant of the structure’s Islamic past is the bell tower, which was once a minaret – a common adaptation made in the Catholic’s reconquering of Spain.
As we exited the Cathedral, Professor Rabinovitch spotted a bitter orange tree that was familiar to him. He insisted that someone, preferably the smallest and most agile student of the group, be lifted into the branches to pick the most ripe and succulent fruit…for tradition’s sake. AJ bravely volunteered as tribute. Professor Rabinovitch and Keiner hoisted AJ into the air and she made her selection: the most sour, bitter orange on the tree.
After that brief diversion, we continued with our tour, now at the Royal Chapel. The Chapel, as well as the Cathedral, were commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, underscoring the significance that Granada has to the Catholic monarchy. Granada was conquered by the Catholics in 1492, what we have learned to be an important year in the history of Andalusia, and marked the end of the final stronghold of Muslim rule in Spain, completing the unification of the country under Catholic rule.
Granada held so much value to the monarchy that King Ferdinand and Isabella requested their burial site to be at the Royal Chapel. Our tour guide spoke of their reign in a romanticized tone, something that has not been uncommon throughout our stay in Spain. While we have read about the discrimination and expulsion that Jews faced under the rule of the monarchy, the narrative in Spain seems to have a softer tone, suggesting that Jews were given the choice to join Catholic Spain or seek refuge elsewhere. No mention of the violence Jews were constantly faced with, the fear surrounding fake converts, or the overall lack of tolerance that the monarchy had for the Jewish population of Spain. The chapel was divided by a grand iron gate, on one side sat the pews, and on the other, the tombs of Isabella, Ferdinand, Juana I of Castile and Philip the Handsome. Their tombs were filled with opulence, carefully carved out of marble, including biblical figures, cherubs, and motifs of their own lives. Beneath them, through a small window, we were able to view the simple caskets of the five monarchs laid to rest in the Royal Chapel.
Once we finished with the chapel, we enjoyed a brief stroll through the former Jewish Quarters of Granada before stopping for ice cream (thank you professors!) and having a free evening to ourselves.
The next day began with a class led by Professor Rabinovitch, featuring Professor Lefkovitz. We discussed the assigned readings and revisited the idea of competing narratives. The scholars we studied presented contrasting perspectives: one portrayed Granada as a city that once thrived on tolerance, while the other argued that rulers were driven solely by money, power, and politics, with tolerance never being a priority under Christian rule, but instead a product of attempting to gain political influence. This discussion segued us into our excursion of the day at Alhambra.
Alhambra was a palace and fortress where Muslims lived for 800 years before being seized by the Catholic Monarchs. The sprawling complex features advanced water systems where once pools, fountains, and baths not only symbolized wealth and power but also played essential roles in hygiene and religious rituals. In the aptly named Court of the Lions, water flows from four directions, leading the eyes to the lavish marble fountain upheld by twelve sculpted lions. Lush gardens encompass Alhambra, once filled with produce to sustain the palace’s inhabitants, but now blooming with sweetly scented roses and water lilies that soften the beige tones of the buildings with bursts of color. Akin to other works of Muslim architecture at the time, the walls and archways are adorned with Arabic calligraphy, most often proclaiming “ولا غالب إلا الله” (Allah is victorious). Other surfaces are decorated with geometric patterns featuring various purposeful imperfections to solidify that only Allah can be perfect. However, the Catholics were still able to override and alter the Muslim presence when they seized Alhambra. The Catholics destroyed the hammam and built a church atop of its foundations, added Latin letters in the midst of the Arabic calligraphy that covers the walls, and put remains of tiles that had “Allah” inscribed on the floor, a sign of grave disrespect in Islam. Despite the alterations made after the inquisition, the beauty and grandeur of Alhambra endures. Symmetry, harmony, and elegance – Alhambra is an architectural poem etched in stone.
