Dream Awake in Granada

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I was living in Granada in 1993 and had a dream one afternoon. In the dream I was a backpacker having tripped off the platform into the station. A punker wearing a Ramones tee shirt handed me a hash joint and said, “Puta madre, tío. Granda es la bomba.” I wandered directly to the caves of the Sacromonte (the hilltop hovering above the city where Gypsies brew brazen flamenco like kettle stew) and shared a bottle of warm Alhambra beer with a guy who said that there were tunnels that ran underneath the city, built by the Nazrids before the surrender to Isabel and Fernando in January.

“January?” I asked. 

“1492, dummy,” he said. And then I woke up.

Dreaming or awake, Granada hands you gems when you aren’t looking. The city is so beautiful to behold that eventually you begin to experience the dream world with your eyes wide open. Though the Alhambra Palace is more visited than Disneyworld every year (as it should be), it’s mudéjar wonders are merely the crown worn on the tresses of a dark, elusive, Spanish princess.

You’ll see these words written on ceramic tiles all over Granada: “Dale Limosna, mujer, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada.”

Written by the Spanish poet Francisco de Icaza, the words describe an old gentleman and his wife who are walking down a street in the Zacatín marketplace. They stroll pleasantly along, taking in the sights and sounds of Granada in the early evening, and they come upon a blind beggar. The gentleman, clearly moved, turns to his wife and says, “Give him alms, my wife, for there is no pain in life greater than that of being a blind man in Granada.”

For centuries, Granada has been a mecca for poets, playwrights, philosophers, artists and hopeless romantics. Such is its beauty that the entire city has been declared a national landmark by the Spanish government. There is a dreamlike, mystical quality to Granada, a medieval elegance that seeps into you and slowly seduces. Everywhere you look, you’ll see the reflections of Granada’s glorious past where, for 800 years, Moorish sultans presided over a tiny but rich and powerful mountain kingdom. So powerful, in fact, that Granada became the last bastion of Islamic rule before its cataclysmic fall at the hands of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabel and the Catholic Reconquest in 1492. Still, the majestic Alhambra palace, perched high above the city on the Sabika hill, serves as a testament to the lyrical elegance and enduring influence of Moorish culture in Spain to this day. 

The Alhambra is the largest, best preserved, and most beautiful medieval fortress on the European continent: an artistic and architectural wonder which stemmed directly from the greatest Moorish sultans, architects, artists and visionaries. The first wave of Moors who swept into Spain in 711 AD. had been nomadic tribes of the desert, and they looked upon Granada as their oasis. As the Alhambra was being built, water became the dominant theme, and everywhere you look there are still fountains, pools, and man-made water channels that follow you wherever you go. There’s a story for every tower and room in the palace, most of which will be offered by a bartender once you’ve stuck around for a while.

Beneath the Alhambra, in the city itself, there are the “secondary” monuments, the Cathedral and Royal Chapel (where the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabel are buried), the Alcaicería (the old market place), and the Plaza Bib-Rambla. The soul of this city, however, is the Albaicín (the old Moorish quarter). Replete with private courtyards, hidden lookouts, immaculate gardens and tapas bars well off the beaten path, the Albaicín fills a day without ever moving a finger. Spend a week in the Albaicín and you’re bitten. You’ll move through the cobble-stoned walkways among the ghosts of Christians and Moors, magicians, princesses, soldiers and saints.

And you may get the sense that a part of you, too, will be left behind. That’s Granada. 

Written by Joshua Wolf, owner and guide of Olé Spain Cultural Walking Tours.