Casa de los Tiros

Look up: between the battlements, musket barrels poke out. These are the tiros, the shots, that give the house its name. But this is no barracks: it is a sixteenth-century noble residence built to look like a fortress, set against the old wall of the potters’ quarter.

1Heirs of a Nasrid prince

The house is tied to the Granada Venegas, one of the city’s most remarkable families. They descended from Cidi Yahya, a nobleman of Nasrid royal blood, a descendant of Sultan Yusuf IV, who during the war of Granada went over to the Castilian side, was baptised as Pedro de Granada and married his cousin, who took the name María Venegas. Their descendants, the Marquesses of Campotéjar, kept the house until 1921. Sources disagree on who had it built; some credit the knight Gil Vázquez Rengifo.

2Heroes, monsters and a motto

Five figures stand guard on the facade: Hercules, Theseus, Mercury, Jason and Hector. The usual reading sees them as praise for the family’s courage; a study published by the University of Granada suggests paying attention to the monsters and the defeated figures beside them. Above the door lies another riddle: a sword pierces a heart that takes the place of a word, so that it reads ‘El corazón mande’, roughly ‘Let the heart command’.

Nobody left a written record of exactly what the motto was meant to say; every visitor reads it in their own way.

Inside survives the Cuadra Dorada, the Golden Chamber, with a coffered ceiling full of kings and heroes. Today the building is the Museo Casa de los Tiros, devoted to the history of the city.

3What to look for

• The muskets poking out between the battlements.
• The five figures on their corbels.
• The sword and the heart above the door.