Granada Historical City

Granada was first settled by native tribes in the prehistoric period, and was known as Ilbyr. When the Romans colonized southeast Spain, they built their own city here and called it Illibris.
The Arabs invading the peninsula in the 8th century, gave it its current name of Granada. It was the last Muslim city to fall to the Christians in 1492, at the hands of Queen Isabel of Castile and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon
The name Granada is ancient and mysterious. It may mean "great castle", for the Roman fortress which once stood on the Albaicin Hill.
When the Moors came here, the town was largely inhabited by Jews, for which they called it Garnat-al-Yahud - Granada of the Jews. The Jews are said to have been one of the first peoples to settle in Spain, even before the Romans.

Come to walk through its streets and paths...

THE SACROMONTE
The Sacromonte hill, which overlooks the city from the North, is famous for its cave dwellings, home to the gypsy community since the thirteenth century, many of which still inhabited. Homestead of humble families, these dens were commonly excavated in the south-orientated slopes of the mountains, drier and sunnier, and whitewashed with quicklime to disinfect the rooms, insuring the structure and increasing luminosity inside.
In Granada there were three important troglodyte sites, ‘El Barranco del Abogado’ (‘The Advocate’s Ravine’), the area of the river Beiro, nowadays covered, and the Sacromonte area, located in the river Darro valley.
This last example benefits of the most prestige and international fame, for its numerous cave dwellings, the beauty of the environment and its religious and cultural significance.
The Sacromonte or ‘Sacred Mountain’, previously known as ‘Valparaiso’, was baptized as such in the sixteenth century as a result of the discovery of a series of relics attributed to Saint Cecil and his disciples. The sanctification of the site by the Vatican brought on the construction of the Sacromonte Abbey, an invaluable architectural complex, and the beginning of a popular devotion which lasts until today and which is manifested every year in the celebration, on the first Sunday of February, of the holiday of Saint Cecil, converted in the patron saint of Granada.
Although the zone is known as the Gypsy area of Granada, in fact a large percentage of the locals were (and still are) ‘payo’ (of non-gypsy origin), emigrated farmers of nearby villages who worked in the local estates or in the fields of the Vega de Granada.
The gypsies, on the other hand, are famous for their skill as blacksmiths and basket-making, in addition to being undisputed artists in flamenco song and dance.
This neighborhood, where gypsies and ‘payos’ have coexisted in a unique surrounding beauty, is, in fact, one of the emblematic sites of flamenco, where artists and people of all origins, foreigners and autochthons, meet in the ‘zambras’ to enjoy flamenco partying until daybreak.