Who built the Alhambra in Granada, and when?
The Nasrids build the Alhambra
Los nazaríes construyen la Alhambra
1333–1391. The red hill above Granada had carried fortifications since the ninth century, but it was Muhammad ibn Nasr, called al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty,…
Where: Spain, Granada
What happened
The red hill above Granada had carried fortifications since the ninth century, but it was Muhammad ibn Nasr, called al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, who moved his court there in the mid-thirteenth century and began the palace-city known as the Alhambra. His descendants, ruling the last Muslim kingdom in the peninsula as tributaries of Castile, kept building for two hundred years. The palaces reached their full splendour under Yusuf I (1333–1354) and Muhammad V (1362–1391): the Court of the Myrtles, the Court of the Lions, walls of carved plaster and tile covered in poetry and the words 'there is no victor but God'. After 1492 the Catholic Monarchs repaired it with Moorish craftsmen, and Charles V planted a Renaissance palace inside it in 1526.
Say it
La Alhambra es un palacio con patios, fuentes y jardines.
The Alhambra is a palace with courtyards, fountains and gardens.
Why it matters
The Alhambra is the best-preserved medieval Islamic palace in the world and the image most people hold of al-Andalus; Washington Irving's tales made it a symbol of romantic Spain.
There today
- See
- You can walk the Court of the Myrtles and the Court of the Lions in Granada, read the poetry carved into the plaster and tile, and then step into Charles V's Renaissance palace inside the same walls.
Read about it
Connected
- Valencia and Seville fall to the Christian kings (between 1236 and 1248)
- Isabel and Fernando marry (19 October 1469)
- The fall of Granada (2 January 1492)
- The fall of Granada (2 January 1492)
Sources
- History — Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife
- Isabella I of Castile — World History Encyclopedia