If we tell you that El Albaicín is not what it used to be, maybe you think that you have arrived too late and that it is not worth the visit. But we mean just the opposite: the neighbourhood still has the best views of Granada, and in particular, of the Alhambra; but during a good part of its hectic history it has not been precisely a place from which to go and enjoy the panoramic. You will see:
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If we tell you that El Albaicín is not what it used to be, maybe you think that you have arrived too late and that it is not worth the visit. But we mean just the opposite: the neighbourhood still has the best views of Granada, and in particular, of the Alhambra; but during a good part of its hectic history it has not been precisely a place from which to go and enjoy the panoramic. You will see:
Let’s go to the year 1227: the Christian armies take possession of the city of Baeza, located today in the centre of Jaen, and the expelled Muslim population decides to go south, to Granada. When arriving they settle in an area outside the walls to which they give the name of Albaicin, which means, according to some scholars, neighbourhood or suburb of those from Baeza.
The settlement grew and gained importance during the following two centuries; it filled up with people, mosques and wells, and its traced maze was inside the new fortifications. But decades passed, and one day Isabel and Fernando came to the command of an army with an unfriendly face. The Spanish monarchs took the city in 1492, and things changed drastically for the inhabitants of the Albaicín.
The reconquered Granada was not as tolerant as it was apparently agreed. Muslims who had not wanted to follow Boabdil and stayed in the suburb became the losers; Fifth-category people that could see how their living conditions got worse rapidly and how tension and disappointment were felt in the neighbourhood. Between that, and the darkness of the alleyways and streets, the overpopulated Albaicín became what we would call today a dodgy place, and it would be excluded from the tourist visits.
Sometime later, the Moors were all sent away. And the progressive decadence of an area that, with beautiful views and everything, was not going to rise back up until very recently. In the twentieth century, after its own particular renaissance, the Albaicín was declared a World Heritage Site in the year 1994, and it even became famous when Bill Clinton said that from one of its viewpoints, one could contemplate the most beautiful sunset in the world.
So, unless it is a rainy day, you must check it out for yourself!
