The City in the Hills

September 13, 2019

The City in the Hills

One of Granada's defining characteristics is that it has lots of hills. Walking to school each day means a mile in the streets, with a relatively steep incline at the end, and even then we're not even close to the "hilly" part of the city. Since being here, I've learned a lot of fun facts about hills: they're called colinas if they're large (like a small mountain) and cuestas if they're smaller slopes, the centuries-old palaces we've seen are on hills so that the citizens could watch for attacks but also simultaneously utilize the land below for crops, and everyone here wants to live in the hills so that they can see the Alhambra through their windows. Which makes sense, because it's a beautiful view!

Albayzín (also spelled Albaicín) is a large neighborhood in the hills, and is well known for being the "old town" part of Granada. Like Montmartre in Paris, Albayzín is a small city within a city, and is home to people from all around the world, including many students and artists. As the perfect example, there's a French art student in my Spanish intensive class who began learning Spanish when she moved to Barcelona four months ago (as her fifth language after French, Arabic, German and English - oh, and there's some Greek in there as well), and now lives in Albayzín so she can study and paint the Alhambra. It's also the oldest neighborhood in Granada and is steeped with Muslim influence. In 1984, it was named as a World Heritage Site so that it could be preserved as an example of Spanish medieval history.

As just a bit of background, Spain was reigned by the Arabs from 711 to 1492 and during those centuries the Iberian Peninsula (then known as Al-Andalus, from which the contemporary name Andalucía is derived) flourished. Unlike other invading groups, the Arabs didn't harshly convert the Christians who were living on the Peninsula, and they easily adapted their lifestyle to the amenities that already existed. The baths left behind by the Romans, for example, were turned into hammams (Middle Eastern steam baths). Al-Andalus was a fusion of culture and religion between the Jews, Christians and Muslims who coexisted throughout the region (albeit under Muslim rule), and is the reason that thousands of words in the Spanish language come from Arabic roots.

In 1030, however, the caliphate broke apart and the Catholics who had been pushed to the north after the Arab invasion seized the opportunity to re-conquest the Peninsula. Granada was the last Arab stronghold left in Al-Andalus, and was defeated in 1492 by Isabel of Castilla and Fernando of Aragon. Isabel and Fernando managed to accomplish a lot during their reign, between uniting two separate regions of the country (Aragon and Castilla), sending Christopher Columbus off on his way to start a massacre in the New World, signing the Inquisition into effect and basically rebooting the European Catholic world.

After the reconquest of Spain, nearly all of the mosques were destroyed, along with hammams and other reminders of Al-Andalus. In their place, the Catholics built their own churches, mostly demolishing everything that was left behind by the Muslims. However, some artifacts and reminders still stand.

You can tell who built which building by looking at the arches! This is an arco de herradura, or horseshoe arch, and is characteristic of Moorish architecture. This style followed the Roman semicircle arch but predated the Gothic pointed arch.

The Arabs called cisterns "aljibes" and used them to collect water for the city. These cisterns were used for the centuries that followed, up until the city of Granada figured out a modern system.

The church of San Juan de los Reyes was a favorite worship spot of Isabel and Fernando, but is also unique because it still has its minaret from when it was a mosque. A minaret is a tower built next to a mosque for call to prayer and, along with a patio and a place for prayer, is one of the major characteristics of a mosque.

Albayzín is also home to many carmens, which are traditional Arab gardens. The typical carmen has fruit trees, a fountain, grapes and romantic plants; the idea is that it's a representation of paradise and the work of the Architect (God). However, according to our guide, a lot of people living in these houses now don't know the history or significance of carmens. He told us that he was once giving a similar group a lecture about what the garden meant and a woman came out of her house to listen to what he was saying. When he finished, she came up to him with wide eyes and said that although she had lived there for thirty years, she had never known what her garden signified.

We happened to be in Albayzín during an important weekend. I'm honestly still confused about what was happening and there's not a lot of information out there, but from what I've gathered it was both the Dia del Patrimonio (a UNESCO thing) and a celebration of the Virgin Aurora, the community's church symbol. The day before this excursion my friends and I spent several hours trying to find the procession and ending up hanging out in the square right below the neighborhood until it got close enough for us to watch. I'm definitely still perplexed, though; we watched dozens of uniformed people with instruments march slowly to a drum beat for about one minute, and then stop for twenty minutes to talk to each other and check their phones while we all just stood there and waited. Apparently they ended up playing music, too, but by then I had to leave because I was already late for dinner.

Anyhow, here are some more pictures from our excursion.