Castles · Tour

Alhambra Guided Tour: the Abencerraje Fountain and the Honeymoon of Charles V

A guided visit to the Alhambra, the Generalife and the Nasrid Palaces, starting outside the gate at the time on the booking. The name comes from the Arabic al-Qal'a al-hamra, the red fortress. Inside it are three Nasrid palaces, and the tour takes all three: the Mexuar, where business was done, Comares, where power was displayed, and the Palace of the Lions, where the court lived. The Court of the Lions and its fountain are in the last of them. A few steps away stands another fountain, its base stained reddish. The legend says the marks are blood, left from the feud between the Nasrids and the Abencerrajes. The stains are real. What caused them is a story that has been told in this room for five hundred years, and the guide will tell you both versions. The Nasrid Palaces were where the Andalusi rulers consolidated power, paid for the arts, conducted their private lives and finally lost Granada. On the way to the Palace of Charles V there is time to work at the ornamentation, which is dense enough to reward the effort. The palace itself has a domestic footnote: Charles V spent his honeymoon here with Isabella of Portugal, and some chronicles hold that the future Philip II was conceived inside these walls. The route continues past the remains of the Medina and into the Alcazaba, the military quarter that protected the whole complex, and the Torre de la Vela, whose bell is rung every 2 January for the conquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs. The Generalife closes the visit: the garden estate next to the Alhambra where the Nasrid emirs relaxed among the fountains and the irrigation channels while planning conquests of both kinds. Two practical points. Admissions to the Alhambra are capped and sell out fast, so book as early as possible for weekends and holidays. And because of the monument's conservation rules the start time can change, so check your phone and email in the 24 hours before the visit. The order of the stops can also vary.