Iglesia de San Antón

As we explored Granada, we happened upon the Iglesia de San Antón. The church is a baroque church founded in 1534 by the Franciscan Terciaries.

It reminded me of the ornate Catholic churchs often seen in Rome.

The Resting Place of Royalty

Next we, explored the Royal Chapel, one of Granada’s most historically profound spaces. Here lie the remains of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs whose conquest of Granada in 1492 marked the end of nearly eight hundred years of Islamic rule on the Iberian Peninsula.

Inside, a magnificent marble mausoleum sculpted by Florentine artist Domenico Fancelli depicts the monarchs in recumbent poses – Ferdinand in armour with his sword, Isabella in simple dress with her hands folded to symbolize humility.

The symbolism of their burial in Granada was deeply personal to Isabella; the city represented the culmination of her life’s obsession, the final Christian victory over the Islamic kingdoms that had ruled the Iberian Peninsula for centuries.

Adjacent to the Royal Chapel stands the Granada Cathedral, a grand Renaissance structure that dominates the city centre, and was built on the site of the city’s former mosque.

Artisanal Flavours of Granada

As we wandered through Granada’s narrower shopping streets, we discovered small artisanal shops selling local specialties that quickly became personal favourites. Candied nuts – pistachios, almonds, and walnuts coated in crystallized sugar – were impossible to resist, their nutty sweetness a perfect afternoon snack as we navigated cobblestone alleyways.

We also found Turkish delight, those jewel-like cubes of gelatin dusted with pistachios or coated in chocolate, a confection with roots stretching back through centuries of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern trade. These small shops, tucked away in corners we might have otherwise missed, represented the kind of authentic local commerce that rarely makes it into guidebooks – the sort of place where shopkeepers know their craft and take genuine pride in what they produce.

The Albaicín

We ventured into the Albaicín, Granada’s oldest neighbourhood, which occupies one of the city’s three main hills and feels like stepping back centuries into Islamic-era Granada. The Albaicín is immediately recognizable as distinct from modern Granada – its labyrinthine street layout, and narrow cobblestone alleys all follow the pattern established during the 11th century when the Zirid dynasty first settled here.

UNESCO designated the Albaicín a World Heritage Site in 1994, recognizing its rich legacy of vernacular Arab architecture harmoniously blended with Andalusian styles. Walking through these streets, the remains of the Alcazaba Cadima fortress walls, historic gates like the Puerta de las Pesas, and churches converted from mosques stand as reminders of Granada’s storied past.

During our exploration of the Albaicín, we stumbled upon a small artisanal perfume shop. Inside, the proprietor had created a compact museum documenting the historical methods of perfume production, with displays showing traditional distillation apparatus.

Ascending to the Sacromonte Caves

We decided to walk from the Albaicín up to the Sacromonte caves, climbing further up the adjacent hill overlooking the city.

The neighbourhood gradually transformed as we ascended – the tightly packed streets gave way to buildings with whitewashed façades emerging directly from the hillside, with good viewpoints of the Alhambra.

Sacromonte Caves: Architecture and Living Conditions

The Sacromonte represents a profound chapter in Granada’s history linked to the Roma people, originating from South Asia but historically misidentified as Egyptians, hence the term “Gypsies.” Roma communities settled in the Sacromonte from the 16th century, living in the caves due to social exclusion and developing the flamenco tradition there.

We spotted fruit trees near the cave dwellings: pomegranates, and tangerines that would have provided sustenance. They also coexisted with animals within and around the caves.

The caves are architectural responses to environment and marginalization: whitewashing the limestone interiors with plaster to regulate temperatures through hot summers and cold winters. This cooling technique influenced nearby houses as well. Forced displacement in the mid-20th century due to natural disaster risk ended the community’s residence, turning the caves into tourist sites while the Roma were pushed out. Seems strange that now that they are gone, the government is earning money from their story – and not the Roma.

Walking the paths, the views of Albaicín below and the Alhambra above framed the neighbourhood’s complex history.

A Culinary Experiment

We dined at Atelier Casa de Comidas, a Michelin-recommended restaurant with an open kitchen near Granada’s centre. The tasting menu included some fascinating dishes that showcased a blend of local and innovative flavours. One starter featured tomate fermentado con caballa – fermented tomato paired with rich mackerel, that offered a fun texture with a balance of acidity and umami.

The menu also included a refreshing gazpacho anisado con quisquillas, an anise-flavoured cold tomato soup served with small shrimp, paired with a homemade green curry of arugula and the citrusy note of finger lime.

On the heartier side, gurullos con morro de ternera Pajuna y thermidor de cigalas paired beef snout and a rich sauce usually reserved for lobster, enhancing the seafood-meets-land narrative. The veal snout was mildly interesting, but not my preferred flavour profile, nor texture.

The main dish of lomo de jabalí curado en Koji y botánicos was wild boar loin cured in koji fungus and botanicals, served with saffron pear, and a Romaine sauce

Despite the refined technical execution and creative flavour pairings, we enjoyed the meal, but ultimately found the overall flavour profiles less aligned with our personal tastes.

The Alhambra Generalife Gardens

Our final day was devoted to the Alhambra, Granada’s UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture. We started at the Generalife gardens, the summer palace and pleasure grounds of the Nasrid emirs.

Meaning “Gardens of the Architect” or “Gardens of Paradise,” the Generalife features tiered terraces with flowers, and fruit trees – pomegranates, figs, citrus – and flowing water channels and fountains that create a cool, sensory landscape.

Water’s central role symbolizes life and paradise in Islamic art.

The Alhambra Nasrid Palace

Inside the Nasrid Palace of the Alhambra, intricate mosaic tiles formed geometric and calligraphic patterns.

The palace’s crown jewel is the Court of the Lions, with its marble fountain supported by twelve stone lions channeling water in four directions, representing paradise flowing to the world. The Alhambra’s advanced water system animates its fountains and pools, blending engineering with artistic expression.

Surrounding halls feature plaster honeycomb-like muqarnas vaulting, engineered to play with natural light dynamically throughout the day. These domes and vaults are built from thousands of small, modular plaster pieces that fit together like a complex three-dimensional puzzle. Each piece is precisely carved and assembled, allowing the ceiling to achieve both its structural integrity and intricate, stalactite-like appearance.

This technique is not only decorative but also serves as a unique architectural solution that distributes weight evenly and creates celestial effects as light filters through.

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Gibraltar itself represents a geographical and political anomaly, a British Overseas Territory situated on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco. As we drove closer, the landscape transformed completely, and soon we could see what defines the entire region: the Rock of Gibraltar towering massively above everything else, its limestone bulk rising over 400 metres above sea level.

First Glimpse: Europa Point and the Southern Edge

Our initial stop was Europa Point, the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, a flat, rocky headland that marks the boundary between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The point gets its name from the mythological figure Europa.

Near Europa Point sits Gorham’s Cave Complex, a cluster of archaeological sites. The complex consists of caves situated at sea level, each containing archaeological and palaeontological deposits spanning over 100,000 years of Neanderthal occupation. In 2016, this site received UNESCO World Heritage status, earning its designation because of the exceptional evidence it holds about how Neanderthals lived. We tried making a spontaneous visit, only to be turned away as the site operates on an extremely restricted access system, with a three-year waiting list to gain entry for serious visitors. The limited access, while unfortunate for us, reflects the delicate nature of these sites, where any uncontrolled traffic would risk disturbing irreplaceable scientific evidence.

The Monkeys on the Mountain: Encounters with Barbary Macaques

As we ventured toward St Michael’s Cave, ascending the winding paths through the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, we began encountering the Rock’s most famous residents: the Barbary macaques. They represent Europe’s only free-living wild monkey population.

Tourists constantly attempted to feed them, despite clear warnings. The animals have learned to exploit this human generosity, demonstrating remarkable problem-solving by unzipping bags and rifling through pockets in search of food.

The Cathedral Beneath the Rock: St Michael’s Cave

The path to St Michael’s Cave climbs steeply on a well-paved road for thirty minutes before reaching the entrance. Several lookout points along the way made the walk up less of a grind.

The cave system itself is a network of interconnected chambers carved over millions of years by rainwater slowly percolating through limestone. Today, the largest chamber functions as a space for hosted concerts, theatrical productions, and opera performances. The cave derives much of its visual drama from its extensive formations of stalactites and stalagmites – mineral-rich water dripping from the ceiling deposits layer upon layer of dissolved rock, gradually building downward from the roof while simultaneously building upward from the floor. Some stalactites hang like pale icicles; others have fused with stalagmites rising to meet them, creating continuous columns of mineral deposit.

The name derives from a similar grotto in Monte Gargano, Italy, where – according to Catholic tradition – the Archangel Michael made an appearance. This connection explains why the cave carries religious significance despite being fundamentally a geological formation rather than a sacred site in the traditional sense.

An installation called “The Awakening,” a light and sound show, transformed the cave into an additional cultural experience. Within this light installation appears an ethereal figure – an angel formed by the projection mapping technology and the natural rock formations.

A Short Stay

Despite the natural and historical richness of what Gibraltar offers, we didn’t linger longer than a few hours. Tourism in Gibraltar often works this way – the territory is small, and its main attractions cluster around the Rock. Many visitors arrive on day trips from southern Spain, explore the key sites, and then depart. We were no different. We faced a 4.5-hour drive toward Granada, leaving Gibraltar behind and transitioning into the landscapes of inland Andalusia.

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