Granada (Spain) the alhambra · The Alhambra in Granada (Spain)  TodayTourism All Destinations | Europe | Asia | North America | Africa | South America | Oceania | Hotels

The Alhambra in Granada (Spain)


The Alhambra in Granada (Spain)

Court of the Myrtles, Palacios Nazaries
Court of the Myrtles, Palacios Nazaries
Official web sites at and . Mar-Oct every day 8:30-22:00 plus F/Sa 22:00-23:30; Oct-Mar every day 8:30-18:00 plus F/Sa 20:00-21:30 (ticket office closes one hour before attraction, evening visits to Palacios Nazaries only). €13 combo ticket for Palacios Nazaries, Alcazaba and Generalife, €7 for just the Alcazaba and Generalife, €8 for an evening visit to the Palacios Nazaries, and €5 for an evening visit to the Generalife. Palace of Charles V free. Reservations: It is highly recommend that you book tickets to the Alhambra in advance, as the number of visitors allowed inside the Palacios Nazaries is limited and tickets tend to sell out. These can be booked online , by phone (+34 902 888 001), or in person at the main entrance to the Alhambra or at the Tienda de la Alhambra shop on Calle Reyes Católicos in the city centre. Note that the online and phone reservation services require a credit card (which you must bring with you to the Alhambra ticket office to pick up your tickets) and charge an extra 10% fee on top of the cost of admission. Several hundred tickets are reserved for sale on the day but these usually require arriving early and queuing for an hour or two. The Bono card can still be available after the regular tickets have sold out. Failing that, quite a lot of the grounds are accessible without a ticket. This general caution applies to cruise ship land tours (e.g., from Malaga); failure to book Alhambra tours early (before or during cruise) may mean no tours/"buses" are available. Note that visiting hours are split into 3 periods: morning (before 14:00), afternoon (after 14:00 to first closing time), and evening (F/Sa only). Tickets are issued for a specific period and access to monuments will not be granted outside that period. However, once inside visitors may remain until closing time. In addition, the Palacios Nazaries can only be accessed for a half-hour time window (shown on the ticket) within your visiting period. As such, it's a good idea to plan your visit around these restrictions - for example, if you have a morning ticket (before 14:00) and your Palacios Nazaries ticket is for 13:00, get to the Alhambra grounds at least a couple of hours before your appointed timeslot for Palacios Nazaries and spend it touring the Alcazaba and Generalife. Getting there: From central Granada, the 30 and 32 minibuses offer a direct connection to the Alhambra, both picking up from the Pavaneras 1 stop (behind Plaza Isabel La Catolica) and the Gran Via 1 stop (next to the cathedral), with the 32 also offering a direct connection to the Albayzin. There's three stops for the Alhambra: Generalife (closest to the ticket office), Carlos V (closest to the Palace of Charles V) and Puerta de la Justica - fare is €1.20. A taxi from the central district (head to the stand on Plaza Nueva) will cost you around €5. On foot, you can walk up to the Alhambra from Plaza Nueva (about a 30 minute hike) by taking Cuesta de Gomerez and heading straight - the ticket office is on the far side of the grounds, near the Generalife. If coming by car from outside the city, you can bypass the historic district by taking the Ronda Sur-Alhambra exit (A-395) from the freeway and following the signs to the parking lot (€1.50/hour).
Palace of Charles V
Palace of Charles V
The Alhambra: Part fortress (the Alcazaba), part palace (Palacios Nazaries), part garden (the Generalife) and part government city (the Medina), this medieval complex overlooking Granada is one of the top attractions in Spain, with many visitors coming to Granada expressly to see the Alhambra. The last Moorish stronghold in Europe, the Alhambra reflects the splendor of Moorish civilization in Andalusia and offers the visitor splendid ornamental architecture, spectacular and lush gardens, cascading and dripping water features, and breathtaking views of the city. The Alhambra was a palace, citadel, fortress, and the home of the Nasrid sultans, high government officials, servants of the court and elite soldiers from the 13th to the 14th century. Other notable buildings belonging to a different time period are also located within the Alhambra complex, most notably the Renaissance style Palace of Charles V, which houses the Alhambra Museum (with historical artifacts from the site) and the Fine Art Museum. But in order to fully appreciate the unique architecture of the Alhambra set within the surrounding landscape, it is advisable to see the Alhambra for afar as well as up close: several locations in the Albaizín (most notably the San Nicolás Viewpoint) or Sacromonte - both covered below - allow you the opportunity to truly admire the Alhambra's spectacular location, lying just above the city of Granada. The Alhambra is a vast complex, composed of many structures and gardens on its lush grounds, which alone are worth exploring - it is totally free to do so and they are open nearly all hours of the day - but there are four primary attractions: the Alcazaba, the Palace of Charles V, the Palacios Nazaries and the Generalife, covered in more detail below. If entering the Alhambra on foot from Plaza Nueva, you'll travel up Cuesta de Gomerez through the Granada Gate, an ornamental archway which marks the entrance to the grounds. From here you can continue straight into the Bosque (forest), a delightfully lush and shady wooded area in the canyon beneath the palace complex with streams running along the footpaths, fountains and statues and, in the summertime, fragrant smells from the trees. If you take the leftmost path from the Granada Gate you'll travel up to the Justice Gate (Puerta de Justica), an imposing Moorish-style archway and entry that served as the primary entrance to the palace complex in days of old. Passing through and up the steps you'll find yourself in a lovely courtyard area, the Square of the Cisterns (Plaza de los Aljibes) between the Alcazaba and the Palace of Charles V next to the Wine Gate (Puerta del Vino), another picturesque horseshoe-shaped archway which once protected the grounds. Continuing along the small road past the Palace of Charles V to the upper part of the palace complex, you'll come across a line of woodworking and souvenir shops, the ruins of a village and the Parador. Though most of the Parador is a restaurant and hotel, parts are still open to the public, including the lovely courtyard entryway and the ruins of a Franciscan monastery, which holds the lovely remains of a small chapel with a view into the hotel's lavish patio area.
  • Alcazaba. The ruins of a massive fortress perched atop the crest of the hill overlooking the city, this is the oldest part of the Alhambra and offers some of the finest views of anywhere in the complex, with an expansive panorama from the top of the prominent tower that gives you a spectacular view of nearly the entire city and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Within the fort's walls are the ruins of a town which once held soldier's homes and baths, though today only the outline of these rooms remain.
  • Palace of Charles V (Palacio de Carlos V). A more recent addition to the Alhambra, this sixteenth century building was commissioned following the Reconquista by Charles V as a royal residence close to the Alhambra palace. The square two-level structure is done in Renaissance style with an impressive circular courtyard ringed by a colonnade within. The building is also home to two museums, the Museo de la Alhambra on the lower floor with a collection of artifacts and art from the Alhambra, and the Museo de Bellas Artes, a small fine art museum on the upper floor, as well as a couple of changing museum exhibits which regularly feature art with some connection to the Alhambra.
  • The ceiling in the Hall of the Two Sisters, Palacios Nazaries
    The ceiling in the Hall of the Two Sisters, Palacios Nazaries
  • Palacios Nazaries. The Nasrid royal palace and the primary (and thus most crowded) attraction of the Alhambra complex, the palace is an impressive, at times breathtakingly beautiful work of architecture. Visitors get to see spectacular archways and windows, carved wooden ceilings, intricate molded-plaster work and colorful ceramic tiles at nearly every turn as they meander between lovely rooms and lush courtyards. Everyone starts their tour in the Mexuar, a set of administrative rooms with a beautiful prayer room and a small square courtyard with the golden Façade of Comares, before emerging in the Court of the Myrtles, a rectangular courtyard with a long pool of water flanked on each side by a myrtle hedge (hence the name). At the end of the courtyard you can enter a room to view the twelve Lion Statues from the fountain in the Court of the Lions, which is currently undergoing renovation. Cross to the other end of the Court of the Myrtles to enter the Ship Room, with its spectacular carved wooden ceiling in the shape of an upside-down hull, and the Chamber of the Ambassadors, the palace's largest and perhaps most spectacular room, which once functioned as the throne room and features a star-studded wooden ceiling, intricately carved stucco walls and beautiful arched windows. From here you'll pass through a series of small rooms, including the Washington Irving Room, where Washington Irving wrote Tales of the Alhambra, as well as down an open-air hallway with an excellent view of an adjacent courtyard (the Court of Linda-Raja) and the Albayzín. Passing by the old bath house you'll enter the Hall of the Two Sisters, a spectacular domed room with an intricate stucco ceiling and lovely views of the Court of Linda-Raja. From here you can navigate around the edge of the Court of the Lions (currently under renovation) to the Hall of the Abencerrages, structurally similar to the Hall of the Two Sisters. At this point you can exit the palace, which will place you near the entrance to the Partal Gardens.
  • Fountain in the Generalife's Lower Gardens
    Fountain in the Generalife's Lower Gardens
  • Generalife. The lush and gorgeous gardens of the Nasrid kings, the expansive Generalife is the finest set of Moorish style gardens in Andalusia, positioned on a hill situated at the rear of the complex overlooking the Alhambra palace. Within you'll find beds of colorful flowers, more exquisite architecture, leaping fountains and cool shade. There are two entrances to the Generalife, one at the ticket booth on the east side of the complex and another next to the Palacios Nazaries which will take you through the Partal Gardens, a collection of palace gardens with flowing water streams and a large pool of water which reflects a nearby portico. From the Partal you can follow the Promenade of The Towers, the remains of the main wall and its adjoining towers that separate the Alhambra palace grounds from the Generalife. As you cross a bridge over a small canyon you'll enter the Generalife proper, where you can follow a promenade past the amphitheater to the Lower Gardens, a collection of hedge rows with rectangular ponds at the center and colorful flower beds throughout. Past this is the Generalife Palace, the white structure sitting atop the hill and the highlight of a visit to the gardens, for it is within that you will find spectacular views, lovely architecture, and the much-photographed Court of the Main Canal, with its crossing jets of water that arc over the rectangular pool. Nearby is the Soultana's Court, another picturesque courtyard with leaping fountains. Above the palace are the High Gardens, where you can find a gorgeous long pergola and the Water Stairway, which true to its name is a beautiful stairway with water flowing down its parapets. The gardens are huge, but the layout is simple as everything in the Generalife can be seen along a long, circular path.

  • The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Granada (Spain)


    Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Granada (Spain) - updated Mar 2024

    SAVE up to 75% on Last Minute deals! Search for discount Granada (Spain) hotels, motels, apartments, hostels, guest accommodations and vacation resorts. Book now and pay at the hotel. Instant email confirmation!


    >>> SEARCH FOR DEALS <<<

    WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020


    Granada (Spain) Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

    Europe | Asia | North America | Africa | South America | Oceania | All Destinations