This is Granada’s most famous balcony. Facing you, across the Darro valley, the Alhambra stretches out along the Sabika hill; behind it, in winter and spring, the snowy peaks of Sierra Nevada gleam.

1Read the landscape

Take it in from right to left. First comes the Alcazaba, the oldest and most military part, with the Torre de la Vela. In the centre are the Nasrid Palaces, dominated by the Comares Tower, and behind them the great square bulk of the Palace of Charles V, begun around 1527. Further left, among cypresses and kitchen gardens, lies the Generalife, the sultans’ country estate. UNESCO declared the Alhambra and the Generalife a World Heritage Site in 1984, and in 1994 extended the listing to the Albaicín, the quarter you are standing in.

2Church and mosque

Behind you is the church of San Nicolás, built in the sixteenth century. In 1932 a fire destroyed its Mudéjar wooden ceiling, and its restoration has dragged on for decades. Very close by, the Great Mosque of Granada, opened in 2003, was presented by its founders as the first mosque built in the city since 1492; its garden offers a similar view.

As evening falls, the sun sets the walls aglow: according to the most widespread explanation, that colour gave the Alhambra its Arabic name, al-Hamra, the Red One.

Take your time and keep an eye on your belongings: at sunset the viewpoint fills with people. To get back down, the steep streets of the Albaicín will bring you to Plaza Nueva in about fifteen minutes.

3What to look for

  • The Torre de la Vela, on the Alcazaba, to the right.
  • The Palace of Charles V, a Renaissance block among the Nasrid towers.
  • Sierra Nevada, in the background, on a clear day.
The church of San Nicolás with its bell tower at the top of the Albaicín, surrounded by white houses and cypresses
The church of San Nicolás, next to the viewpoint, seen from the Alhambra.

Documented

The Alhambra and the Generalife have been a World Heritage Site since 1984 and the Albaicín since 1994; the church of San Nicolás suffered a fire in 1932.

Oral tradition

Explaining the name al-Hamra by the reddish colour of the walls is the most widely accepted theory, but there are others.

Sources and credits

UNESCO, entry ‘Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada’; Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (alhambra-patronato.es); Asociación Amigos de San Nicolás and Hispania Nostra, Lista Roja del Patrimonio, entry on the church of San Nicolás.

Photos:

  • The Alcazaba of the Alhambra with the Torre de la Vela and cypresses, seen from the Mirador de San Nicolás: Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • The church of San Nicolás with its bell tower at the top of the Albaicín, surrounded by white houses and cypresses: Jebulon, CC0.

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