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The Moors’ mountain stronghold
MALCOLM ROGERS falls under the spell of the romantic and ancient city of Granada — last outpost
of the Moors’ reign in Spain.
Granada must be in the running as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
With the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains as a backdrop, and the red walls of the ancient Alhambra palace shimmering in the summer sun across the valley, the old cobbled streets echo to the sound of its tempestuous past.
It’s quite hard to put your finger on the definitive atmosphere of Granada. Because of its height above sea level and proximity to the mountains, there is something of an Alpine feel to parts of the town particularly, further out towards the Sierra.
On the other hand, the town’s plazas are the full peseta — 100 per cent Spanish, with families sitting at tables in the tree-lined squares eating tapas and drinking Rioja. The centre of the city is resplendent with Renaissance and baroque buildings — another mark of a true Spanish city.
The obligatory cathedral was once a mosque — indeed, many of the city’s churches are former mosques, with the minarets converted into bell towers.
Needless to say, the re-establishment of Christianity wasn’t to everyone’s liking. Lorca, Granada’s most celebrated poet (and occupying a position akin to that of WB Yeats in Ireland), used to say that the Christian Reconquest of Spain was its greatest tragedy. When the last Moors were driven from the country, he believed they took with them a lightness of being, a tolerance and liberality of spirit — a love of the craic, you could say.
But the Islamic legacy is amazingly resilient, because Granada, more than any other influence, still has the feel of a Moorish city. This is particularly true today in the old Arab quarter, the AlbaicÌn, recently resettled by immigrants from north Africa. Tea bars and restaurants in the narrow streets of the old casbah vie for space with shops selling carpets, incense— and of course tacky souvenir shops so over-the-top they might even make a gtarden gnome dealer lblush.
But for those of you missing your spicy food (Spanish dishes can be surprisingly bland) this is the area to head for to stock-up on kebabs, humus and curries.
The AlbaicÌn is also a good place to find cheap accommodation. A lot of the old Moorish merchants’ houses in the area have been restored as hotels, many with dramatic views of the Alhambra.
Granada, the last great city of Spanish Islam, has the poignant claim to be the last place where the three great religions of the world managed to co-exist peacefully. In this corner of Europe, two civilisations meshed with Jewish and gypsy elements to form one of the richest cultures Europe has ever known. Even the Inquisition could never fully rid the influence from the southern Spanish psyche, which survives not just in the flamenco, but also in the love of poetry, the literature if Cervantes — and indeed the very look of the people to this day. Granada should be a lesson to the world of what can be achieved through religious tolerance.
The Alhambra, in particular, is a reminder that, at one time, Islam was associated in the European mind with culture, music, learning and luxury. Granada is probably the perfect place to visit at a time when Jews, Muslims and Christians are at each other’s throats. Andalusia a thousand years ago showed that it doesn’t have to be that way.
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