June 3rd, 4th, & 5th in Granada, Spain

Poets, Politics, & Plazas: Three Days of Learning in Granada

By Ava Levinson

Tuesday, June 3rd, started with a combined class led by Professors Lefkovitz and Rabinovitch. We started with a discussion on Jewish poetry, talking about a poem by famous Jewish poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol titled “The Palace and the Garden.” Ibn Gabirol lived in Granada during the 11th century. The poem is about Alhambra — the historic castle we visited the day before. It describes the beauties and splendors of the gardens and is classified as a qasida poem: an ode of praise to ibn Gabirol’s patron. Afterwards, we transitioned to Professor Rabinovitch’s class. Our topic of discussion was the forming of historical narratives. We talked about the differences between the current Moroccan historical memory and Spanish historical memory. Simply put, there are opposite heroes and villains in each respective story. The current Spanish narrative formed the way it did largely because of the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, a nationalist rebellion led by General Francisco Franco defeated the liberal Spanish Republic. This ingrained the importance of Spanish Nationalism into the country’s history.

After class, we had a few hours of free time and we all departed our separate ways. A few of us went to a burger place a block away from the hotel and I enjoyed a burger with a gluten free bun. I then ventured downtown to the fully gluten free bakery I had discovered during our time in Sevilla, called chök. They had dozens of different treats and I selected the cinnamon roll. I then headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the group.

We ventured back downtown for our guided tour. We walked through Bib-Rambla Square on our way to Real Monasterio de los Jerónimos. The square was, historically, used as a place for destroying books after the Christian reconquest by a man named Cardinal Cisneros. There is a salmon-colored building in the corner of the square which was one of the University of Granada’s first headquarters. Now the square is filled with restaurants, cafes, and hosts an annual Christmas market.

We walked to the monastery down San Jeronimo street and passed the law school buildings of the University of Granada. We passed college dormitories, religious buildings, and a church before arriving at the monastery. The monastery is named for St. Jerome who was originally from present day Croatia and is known for living in the desert with a lion. The word “real” means royal, indicating that this monastery was approved by the Catholic monarchs. During the French occupation, in the early 19th century, the French used the monastery as military barracks. They dismantled part of the existing bell tower, using the bricks to build a bridge which still exists in Granada. Decades later, it was fully restored by a nun.

Nuns have been living in this monastery since the 1970s. The main cloister was built in 1505 and the construction of the building was officially finished in the 18th century. There were originally four cloisters but now there are only two. The monastery presently functions as a contemplative order as the nuns spend most of their lives within the walls, praying. Notably, Emperor Charles V’s wife lived in this monastery after Granada was hit with an earthquake. She was scared of returning to the palace of Alhambra after the two had spent their honeymoon in Granada.

We went through the rooms of the monastery exploring the refectory (the room where the monks used to eat together), the profundis (the room where the monks would wash their hands before eating), the chapter room (where the monks would gather to discuss and make important decisions), and the sacristy (the room in which the priests changed their clothes). In the sacristy there is a statue of baby Jesus that dates back to the 15th century. This figurine would be carried into battle by a grand general as a talisman of good luck. It predates the monastery.

Last, we went into the church. It was built in the 16th century in the Baroque and gothic style. The paintings that fill every inch of the walls were made in the 18th century, designed by painters in Granada. The altar piece is gold and decadent, designed to resemble that of the royal chapel which we visited in Cordoba.

Next on our guided tour, we headed to Botanical Gardens belonging to the University of Granada. Emperor Charles V was the founder of Granada University and there is a statue of him with his two headed eagle in front of the university buildings. The two headed eagle has become the symbol of the university. A notable figure, Federico Garcia Lorca, was housed in what is now the law building but was a prison in the 1930s. He was executed during the beginning of the Spanish Civil War by firing squad. Lorca studied law at the University.

The botanical garden itself opened in 1850 by the dean of the faculty of pharmacy. It was used by him for collecting and researching plants. Many of the plants come from the Sierra Nevada mountain range. There are oak trees, a sephora tree from 1856 native to Japan, and a Canary Island pine tree. There is also a prickly pear cactus from the Americas.

After the botanical garden we enjoyed dinner at a sushi restaurant by the hotel called Akemi. It was a delicious end to the lovely day.

Wednesday began with another class led by Professor Lefkovitz. In this class, and the following class on Thursday, we continued our discussion about Hebrew poetry, closely analyzing some of the poems we’d taken a look at for homework. Within these two discussions, we talked about the importance of memory. Andalusian poems are categorized by a shared nostalgia for a time “before.” The idea of Andalusia is a myth, as there is always a want for what once was. We discussed how this longing for a different time or place is a common theme within these poems and how that relates to the shared view of this time in history. This connects to the discussion we were having in Professor Rabinovitch’s class about defining a historical narrative. Thursday was our final literature class and we concluded by reflecting on the Arabic and Hebrew poems we’d read throughout our time in Spain, picking out and analyzing our favorite ones. We talked about our final assignment for the class and had a collective brainstorming session.

The rest of Wednesday was given to us as free time — time to work on assignments, our finals, and relax after our week. I spent the time reading, writing, and hanging out in the hotel. The day ended with a streaming of the movie “El Cid,” a 1960s film about a fictionalized Spanish hero who led the army against Islamic forces.

On Thursday, after our morning class, we headed to another guided tour. For this tour, we took a bus to the neighborhood of Albayzin, a hilly area in the corner of Granada. The neighborhood originates in the 13th century with about 29,000 people living there in the 14th and 15th centuries. When it was built, it was a Muslim neighborhood, but now, the demographics have changed with a population of only 10,000. The name of the neighborhood is Arabic and translates to “the people who came from Baeza“. The neighborhood still resembles the medieval city it was built as, with most of the houses still painted white to keep out the heat. There are several mosques in the neighborhood along with stores and restaurants. However, after the reconquest, the Christians converted most of these mosques into churches. You can distinguish these churches from mosques because the Christians reconstructed the original minarets into bell towers, adding bells and a cross to the top of the tower.

The streets are hand-made, swirling into different, intricate patterns, with stones taken from the river. A lot of the houses in the neighborhood take on the name “Carmen,” denoted with plaques on the buildings, which comes from the Arabic word for grape. This is because the front door of these houses open onto a patio that, typically, houses grape vines. The history of the medieval neighborhood can be seen in the old Medina wall from the 11th century, surrounding part of the city.

After walking through the winding streets, we arrived in Plaza de San Nicolas (named after a bishop from the 4th century who gave presents to the poor at night). There was a magnificent view of the city and a full view of Alhambra. We went into the church in the square, the Church of San Nicolas, one of the first Christian churches in the neighborhood from the 16th century. There was a fire in the 20th century that burned down the domed roof, so now there is a modern stained glass ceiling. There is art along the walls from artists around the world: Ukraine, Syria, Ethiopia, and Armenia. We then took the four flights of stairs up to the church’s tower to witness the view of the city.

After departing the church, we walked up a hill and crossed into the neighborhood of Sacromonte. This neighborhood is from the 16th century. Roma communities settled there, coming from India in the 16th century. We arrived at a cave which people have lived in since the 15th century and, currently, Roma people still live in these caves. The term “gypsy” is a term used by this group of people rather than “Roma” which is used by the rest of the world. Though “gypsy” is considered derogatory, it’s not a derogatory term in Granada. In Spanish, the word is “Hitano.” After exploring the cobblestone streets, we walked down from the neighborhood, past a river on a street named Carrera del Darro and stopped at a sweets shop called Sabor A España. We ended the tour in Plaza Nueva and went our separate ways back to the hotel.