• The city of Granada

• don Quijote Granada
• Pricelist

THE CITY:

• Population: 236.000
• Location: South East of Spain (in the Andalusia region)
• Granada is Spain's third-largest university city (over 60.000 students).
• Granada has a lot of lovely parks and gardens and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

CULTURAL/RECREATIONAL:

• The beautiful beaches of the Costa del Sol are less than an hour away.
• The city of Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which are great for year-round sport: hiking the summer or skiing in the winter.
• Granada is close to otherr southern cities such as Seville, Cordoba, Almeria, etc.
• Do not miss visiting the Moorish Alhambra (a semi fortress-palace) and the old Moorish quarter of Albaicín, as both are World Heritage Sites.
• As the last Moorish capital in the Iberian Peninsula, you will find a lot of Moorish palaces, details and Christian Renaissance treasures.
• Throughout the year, there are a lot of picturesque religious celebrations.

Granada is the capital of the southern Spanish province of the same name, situated in the eastern part of the region of Andalusia. Geographical and scenic diversity characterizes this land. There is the coastal area with its warm climate; the extensive, fertile Genil plain; and the mountainous regions with a colder climate, where one finds the 3.481 meter Mulhacén, the highest peak of the peninsula of Spain. The city of Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where the Darro and Genil rivers meet. Its unique history has bestowed it with an artistic grandeur as the last Moorish capital on the Iberian Peninsula, embracing its Moorish palaces and Christian Renaissance treasures which hold great symbolic value.

The Granada's Cathedral

The city of Granada has been shaped by the hills brimming with steep, narrow streets, beautiful nooks and crannies, and marvelous landscapes - hills where the old districts in of the Albaicín and the Alhambra Palace were founded. The new part of the city is situated on the plain, crisscrossed by the large streets of Gran Vía de Colón and Calle de los Reyes Católicos, and where the busy streets around the Cathedral are found.

The Moors crossed the strait of Gibraltar in 711 and settled in what was then a small Visigoth town perched atop the Alhambra hill. They settled, erected walls and laid the foundation for the prosperous civilization that would follow. It was in the 9th century when Granada rose to importance after the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba. Its splendor was reached in 1238, when Mohammed ben Nasar founded the Nasrid dynasty, and the kingdom of Granada stretched from Gibraltar to Murcia. This dynasty bore twentykings and for three centuries, a magnificent and rich Islamic culture flourished, leaving Granada with architectural marvels of the caliber of the Alhambra which all came to an end when King Boabdil was forced to surrender Granada in 1492 to the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Today, Granada has been declared a World Heritage Site, along with the Generalife and the Albaicín.

The Alhambra gardens

Paseo de los Tristes

• Dia de la Toma (Day of Surrender or recapture) on January 2nd is the day Granada celebrates the city’s defeat against the Spanish Catholic Monarchs.
• On February 1st, San Cecilio, the patron saint of the city is honored. The inhabitants of Granada walk in a great procession, often in carnival clothing, up to Mount Sacromonte.
• The Semana Santa is extensively celebrated in the spring. The traditional festivities and processions during the Semana Santa are among the most famous in all of Spain.
• Spring is traditionally heralded during the Día de La Cruz on May 3rd. On this day, the streets of Granada transform into one big, colorful mass of people.
• In June there is Corpus Christi, an annual market which lasts a whole week and marks the beginning of celebrations in the various districts of the city and the villages around Granada.