Granada is situated at the southernmost part of Andalucia, Spain and enjoys a beautiful weather all year through, winters are mild and summers are warm and lovely especially when you can head down to the beach whenever you feel like it as you don’t have to travel far. Granada is a unique destination place where you can have the snow and the beach in close proximity. The Sierra Nevada province of Granada is a popular skiing destination and is only 30 kilometres away from the city of Granada.

Granada is one of the most popular cultural destinations all over the world for it is the home of the Alhambra, the gardens of Generalife and Albaicin – a UNESCO world heritage site since 1984. There are thousands of things to see and explore in Granada aside from the Alhambra and Albaicin - the elegant architecture and buildings in the centre of Granada, the green parks, the quaint independent boutiques and the beautiful churches are also worth visiting.
Granada is also a university town which gives it a fun, young and hip atmosphere where you can find numerous restaurants, tapas bars, churos bars and clubs.

It is no wonder that Granada is rich in culture and history. It has seen and experienced a vast array of visiting and exploring people from far flung places leaving behind their imprints which has shaped Granada as you see it now. There were the Phoenician, Carthaginians and the Greeks from as early as 1000 B.C. then came the Romans in 200 BC who took over the whole of Spain and beyond. When the Roman Empire started to crumble they have surrendered Granada to the Visigoths in 5th century AD and under their control Granada began to rise in both size and importance. It is also under this year that the Jews settled in some part of the town and named it Garnata-al-yahut – bringing the name closer to its present day name. The Visigoths settlement in Granada only lasted for 200 years.
In the year 711 a Moorish Caliphate called Tariq has conquered Granada and two years later the city has succumbed completely to Moorish control. It was not until the year 1238 that Granada experienced its splendour under the ruling of the Nasrid dynasty; it was also under this dynasty that the fortress and palace of Alhambra, Generalife were built. The Alhambra, a combined fortress and palace was constructed to protect both the city and the palace where the monarchs and their entourages could relax and hold court in true Moorish style.
Whilst the Southern part of Spain was under Moorish governance the Northern part was getting more united under King Fernando III during the 13th century. The Nazrid King Ibn al-Ahmar reached an agreement with King Fernando III and so Granada was officially declared official vassal of the Spanish King. With this declaration the Nazaris was protected for many years from rapid Spanish invasion. Granada has become the last Moorish state in Spain and received the Muslims and the Jews from other cities and has continued to expand and prosper. It was also during the 13th and 14th century where the city’s commerce, art and culture flourished, and became a peaceful kingdom where Muslims, Jews and Christians co-existed.
On the 2nd of January 1492, after an extended siege, the then Nazrid king finally conceded to the armies of King Ferdinand (of Castille) and Queen (Isabella of Aragon) and the Catholic monarch moved into Granada and made the Alhambra their home. In the early part of the Christian reconquest, the traditions and way of life of the Moorish inhabitants was fully respected. Changes were, of course, made and one typical step taken in demolishing the main mosque in the city to make way for a prominent new Christian cathedral, built on the ruins. However, in 1499 the mood changed when Bishop Cisneros insisted that all inhabitants should be baptized. As time progressed, the Christianisation of the city also brought in heavy taxation of the Muslim population along with a ban on them wearing traditional Muslim dress. The speaking of any language other than Spanish was further step that drove out many of the Moorish population.
Those remaining in 1568 felt so imposed upon that they rebelled, with the almost inevitable consequence that they were heavily defeated and the rebels driven out of the country altogether.
In the meantime, however, the city had moved forward in many respects. The building of the imposing cathedral was followed by the establishment, in 1531, of the University of Granada by King Carlos V, who is also noted for building an additional palace within the Alhambra walls in a strangely Romanesque style.
The following three centuries saw Granada gain further importance within the kingdom as a critical centre of commerce and of learning. The gold pouring in from Spanish colonies, especially in South America, aided the development of the now very elegant city in a style no others can match, for its retention of the influence of its Moorish background. Only in the 18th and 19th centuries did French and English influence start to change the look of the city.
In 1810 Napoleon Bonaparte entered Spain and a period of turmoil began. The invasion by the French lasted only two years and was brought to an end by armies under the leadership of the Marquess of Wellesley – the future 1st Duke of Wellington. As a gesture of thanks, a large area of land outside the city, on the edge of the town of Illora, was granted to the family of the Duke of Wellington in perpetuity and is regularly visited by the present Duke and the Marquess, his son, as well as having been visited by many members of the British Royal family as a quiet
retreat away from paparazzi.
Spain, in general, had lost its colonies and went through a protracted period of political turmoil combined with natural disasters that led eventually to the Spanish Civil War in 1936 to 1939 and much of the area saw fighting between the two sides. In the end, of course, General Franco took power as dictator and retained it until his death in 1975, at which point democratic government and the monarchy were both fully restored – as General Franco’s express wish.
Granada, as a centre of learning, had grown in importance throughout the period from the 19th century. The influential poet Federico Garcia Lorca was born not far from Granada and lived there until he went to Madrid to study and later on visited New York and South America. He came back to Granada when the civil war started to erupt and remained there until his execution by General Franco. Another influential inhabitant was the composer Manuel de Falla. In the 1970’s the University, which until then had been accessible primarily to the upper classes only, opened to all and the city sprouted student halls of residence. The University itself had developed enormously and now contained, as it does to this day, one of the most important medical departments in the whole of Spain.
Granada, in the 21st century, by virtue of the Alhambra - the most visited attraction in Spain –and the University together, which hosts many thousands of foreign students at any one time, is an elegant multi-cultural city with an inescapable history with the Moorish influence remaining as strong today as it may have been 500 years and more ago.