Granada andalucia spain

GRANADA


I. Granada information

II. History

III. General Information
C. Granada weather
D. Uselfull Information

IV. Tourist Destinations
A. Granada Y Sierra Nevada
B. La Vega Y La Campana

V. Sightseeing and Other Activities
A. The Alhambra
B. The Albaicin
C. Sacromonte, Flamenco and The Gypsies

D. Nightlife

VI. Gastronomy



II. HISTORY

Granada city has an origin of Ibero-Celtic settlement, which apparently made contact with the Carthaginians and the Phoenicians along with the Ancient Greeks. A colony was established by the Greeks which they named as Elibyrge or Elibirge, during the 5th century BCE and under the Ancient Roman rule of Hispania, throughout the early centuries CE, Illiberis, had become its city name. Due to the city’s new name, Illiberis, the city minted their own coins as part of the Spanish economy. The Visgoths were able to maintain the significance of the city of Granada city despite the fall of the Western Roman Empire as the center of both civil administration and ecclesiastical and further established it as a military stronghold. It was then reconquered and ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire for a century.


Subsequent to Ummayad conquest of Spain, during the year 711, Moors occupied large parts of the Iberian Peninsula setting up the Al Andalus (Moorish, Spain). The Moors, however was able to maintain much of the Roman legacy, making it possible to have had a repaired and extended Roman infrastructure, which is being utilized for irrigation while introducing new agricultural practices and novel crops, like citrus fruit and apricots in the city of Granada. “Gárnata” or “Gárnata al-yahud”, (Granada of the Jews) a community located on the edge of the city which was established by the Jewish people, and Tariq Ibn-Ziyad, along with the help of this community, the Moorish forces first took the city during the year 711, and was fully conquered during the year 713. The Jews called this city “Ilbira”, while the Christian community referred to it as “Elvira”. This became the capital province of the “Caliphate of Cordoba”, and during the early 11th century, civil conflicts that wracked the Caliphate led to the city’s destruction in the year 1010. The suburb of Gharnáta was incorporated in the city in the following reconstruction, and the modern name was derived after this. During the year 1013, Granada became an independent emirate Taifa of Granada with the arrival of Zirid dynasty. The city of Granada had extended across Darro reaching the hill of the future of the Alhambra, and included the Albayzin (also Albaicín or El Albaicín) neighborhood by the end of eleventh century and Granada was ruled by the Almohad dynasty during this period as well.


With the Almohad prince’s departure, named Idris during the year 1228, who left Iberia in order to take Almohad leadership, a Muslim dynasty was established on the Iberian peninsula by Ibn al-Ahmar, known as the Nasrids. The Reconquista, in full swing following the conquest of Cordoba during the year 1236, the Nasrids aligned themselves with Ferdinand III of Castile, which officially became a tributary state in the year 1238. In the year 1238, the state became officially turned into an Emirate of Granada.


Since the year 1238, the city of Granada became a tributary state to the Kingdom of Castile and it was able to provide connections with the Arab and Muslim trade centers, especially gold from Saharan Africa, and the Manghreb. Nasrids also supplied for the troops of Castile, from the mercenaries and the Emirate of North Africa.


Emir Muhammad XII, the last Muslim sultan of Iberia, also known as Boabdil to the Spanish, gave up total control of Emirate of Granada to Ferdinand II along with Isabela I, Los Reyes Católicos (The Catholic Monarchs), after the last battle of the Granada War on the 2nd of January 1492.


This was one of the more crucial events in the city of Granada’s history and additionally, the completion of the Reconquesta of Al Andalus. The Alhambra Decree treaty, which became the terms of surrender, was the Mudéjar. It indicates that they explicitly allowed the city’s Muslim residents to continue, unmolested in their customs especially in their faith. Nevertheless, within the year 1499, Cardinal Jiménes de Cisineros became infuriated with this especially with Fernando de Talavera, Granada’s first Archbishop, slow conversion effort and undertook a forced Christian baptism setting up the Converso (convert) class for Moors (Morisco) and Jews (Marrano). Cineros’s new strategies were direct violations of the terms of the treaty, and unfortunately, it gave rise to an armed Muslim revolt which were focused on the rural Alpujarras region, located in the south-western part in the city of Granada. As a response to the rebellion during the year 1501, the Alhambra Decree treaty was revoked by the Castilian Crown, and the Granada’s Muslims was mandated that they must either convert or emigrate. Due to this, the Jewish population in Spain, unlike he Muslims were already been forced to convert to being Catholics or be expelled-executed, turning into Marranos or Catholics of Jewish descent. Nevertheless, members of the elite Muslim class emigrated to North Africa while majority of Granada’s Mudéjar Muslims had no other option but to stay and convert, turning into Catholics of Moorish descent. Both of these populations of conversos were subject to execution, persecution or exile and each of them had a portion that practiced their original religion in secrecy.


The city of Granada took an even more Castilian and Catholic character throughout the course of sixteenth century, since immigrants arrived to the city from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Christian Churches were converted from city’s mosques or completely demolished, while brand new structures such as Chancillería or Royal Court of Appeals and the cathedral turned the urban landscape. The Jewish quarter (ghetto) was destroyed in order to make way for the new Catholic and Castilian institutions and ideas, as a result of having the majority of Granada’s Jewish population being expelled after the 1492 Alhambra decree.


Along with the numerous significant events that marks the concluding half of the Spanish 15th century, the fall of Granada holds a crucial value. An eight hundred year-long Moorish civilization reconquista in the Iberian civilization was accomplished. Spain began their major stage of exploration and colonization around the globe, now with serious internal territorial conflict. WIthin the same year, Christopher Columbus in his sailing expedition became the first European sighting of the New World. Isabella I and Ferdinand II had vital achievements in their reign due to the Americas enriching the country and the crown. The extensive Spanish empire was established due to the succeeding takeovers and colonizations from the naval expeditions which they commissioned, thus making it the largest in the world for a certain time.