Granada history

The Alhambra, the fairy-tale palace-fortress of Granada's old Moorish rulers, perched on a hill overlooking the city centre, is the stuff of dreams and a place people travel for days to see.

The Alhambra well symbolises Granada's story and significance, having been brought to its peak of elegance and splendour in the 14th and 15th centuries when Granada was the flourishing capital of the last Moorish kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula.

Finally, in 1492, the Christian Reconquest reached here too, led by Spain's 'Catholic Monarchs', Isabel and Fernando, and bringing with it the churches, monasteries and other monuments that also contribute to the city's beauty and atmosphere today.

From their medieval heyday Granada and the Alhambra slipped into centuries of decline, which only started to be reversed by the interest taken in them by 19th-century Romantics such as American writer Washington Irving, author of the celebrated Tales of the Alhambra. The Romantics' interest sparked early tourism here.