Münzer and his companions were in Granada and the Alhambra for six days. This section of the Itinerary is the longest, and what we are quoting here is only a small part of that account. He was there less than two years after the Catholic Kings completed their conquest, and was one of the first foreigners to visit the city at this time. If you, dear reader, are interested in the entire account, please go to http://art.utsa.edu/faculty/full-time-faculty/dr-judith-b-sobre/. The whole Münzer translation is there.
This section is divided into two blog entries: Granada and the Alhambra, which was a city unto itself.
Münzer on Granada
“The 22nd of October, after midday, we entered the glorious and very well populated city of Granada and, passing along a very long street, among infinite Saracens, we were received at last at a good inn. We took off our shoes immediately, because we were only permitted to enter in our stocking feet, and we entered the biggest and most distinguished mosque. It was seventy six paces long and 113 in length; in the center, a pavilion with a fountain, for ablutions, and nine aisles or orders of columns; in each aisle there were thirteen free-standing columns and fourteen arches. We also saw many lamps burning, and priests singing their Hours, and more than songs, you would think they were war cries… In the city there are more than 200 others, which are much smaller...We also saw an enormous candlestick, on which on festival days, more than a hundred lamps burn…That night, before dawn, there was so much shouting from the towers of the mosques, that it was difficult to believe. There are no paintings or sculptures in the mosques, which is also prohibited by Mosaic law. We admit images and pictures because they are as scripture for the profane. Outside of that mosque there is a building, and in its center a very long marble basin, twenty paces in length, in which they wash before entering the mosque. All of this is constructed with such care and so beautifully, that it causes admiration. There is also an excellent well from which to drink.
[The Geographical Situation of the City of Granada]: In describing Granada, the biggest city of this realm, I could call it a kingdom more than a city. Towards the east there are many and very high mountains, some of which almost reach the clouds. I believe they are higher than the Italian Alps. Although the region is warm and southern, one can see copious snow on the highest mountains all year.
When Granada was conquered and subjugated under the Christian yoke, many thousands of men—more than 40,000—with their two kings, fled to Africa. Many perished as well of hunger during the time of the siege; others became fugitives. There remains, however, a great number of Saracens in the city. And although they have authorization to live freely and practice their religion for three years—a time period that expires next January--their courage and resistance are being broken little by little, because they have vacated all of the seaports, and the biggest cities in the vicinity are now inhabited by Christians, which makes it very difficult for them to rebel.
[The Greatness of the City]: The city of Granada has seven hills and its mountains with the corresponding valleys, all of which are inhabited. The side before the Alhambra is, however, the best. The Alhambra, towards the south, has on the flank of the mountain another city that they call the Antequeruela, which, about eighty years ago, was built by the fugitives from Antequera who took refuge in Granada, after that former Saracen city was conquered by the Christians.
At the top of the mountain, towards the north, facing the Alhambra, there is another city united to the great Granada—but separated by a wall—and they call it Albaicín, which was the residence of the Junior King.
In this city, or perhaps actually part of the city of Granada, there is a very beautiful mosque, of eighty-six free-standing columns, that is smaller, but much more beautiful than the great mosque of the city, with a delicious garden planted with lemon trees. Walking downhill, towards the great city, at the top of the mountain facing Granada, we find another mosque, pretty but not as big, which, by command of the King, the archbishop threw out the Saracens and consecrated it in honor of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and bestowed it with clergy. In its garden, we saw an enormous olive tree, bigger than an oak tree, full of olives. Going up its tower, I counted so many mosques, that it's hard to believe it.
The houses of the Saracens are in the majority so small—with little rooms—dirty on the exterior, very clean inside—that they are scarcely believable. Almost all have water pipes and cisterns. In the land of Christians, a house occupies more space than four or five of the Saracens. Within they are so intricate and complicated that they resemble swallows' nests. From this comes the saying that in Granada there are more than 100,000 houses, and I believe it.
King Fernando has already commanded that many of the streets be widened, and to construct markets, demolishing some of the houses. He ordered also the demolition of the place where some 20,000 Jews lived, and to construct at their expenses a large hospital and a cathedral in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that we saw completed almost to the roof and exterior covering, and which will be the Episcopal see. The population of Granada is also uncountable, because in the period of the siege, there were more than 200,000 men in the city, including many refugees from other cities conquered by the Christians.
The day of the 23rd of October, leaving in the morning by the Elvira gate, which is the way to Córdoba, we left passing the cemetery of the Saracens, which in truth I believe is two times bigger than all of Nüremberg, which caused me much admiration
On the way, we arrived at the new monastery of the order of Saint Jerome, outside the walls, constructed two years ago, with much craft, in an old and noble mosque; within the walls, the monastery of the Dominican preachers, called Santa Cruz, the friars of the monastery of the Holy Spirit, who wear entirely white habits and a red cross on their chests.”
What Münzer saw:
Münzer had the unique opportunity to see Granada in transition. Since the Moors were still there, he could see many mosques, including the Great Mosque still functioning, as well as examine Moorish dwellings and their inhabitants. Albaicín still evokes the Muslim hilltop region as it was, with its wall, and its streets, many of which are staircases. But the widening of streets that King Fernando began has helped to let sunlight in, though they’re still narrow by modern standards. No humble Moorish houses remain (though we saw a reconstructed one at the Alcazaba in Almería), but a wonderful small palace, the Dar El Horra does. It’s the reputed palace of the mother of the last Nasrid king, best known as Boabdil. It still retains a great deal of its stucco work (yeserías), its enchanting courtyard, its inlaid wooden ceilings, the second floor gallery and its tower.
The former Albaicín mosque was demolished, and is now the site of the church of San Salvador. Other mosques in this neighborhood are also rebuilt churches, including San José, though its separate bell tower was the old minaret, and it dates to earlier, pre-Nasrid times. The Elvira Gate still stands, though its Islamic cemeteries, do not.
The Hieronymite and Dominican monasteries, are where originally founded, part of the Catholic Kings’ rapid and aggressive policy of Christianizing the former Islamic lands. Both now exist, though the Hieronymite monastery was totally overhauled in the 16th century; and although the Dominican church has its Isabelline structure, it is completely encrusted with later retablos and other ornaments. The Jews, who had lived peacefully in the Nasrid Kingdom, were expelled as they had already been in the rest of Spain. The neighborhood called Antequeruela is now known as El Realejo.
What Münzer Could Have Seen:
Several Nasrid-era structures within Granada on the flat part of the city can still be found: one of many Arab baths, the mihrab of the former religious school, the Madrasa (now within a university building near the Cathedral), the old market, or souk in the same area, rebuilt after an 1854 fire, and the merchants’ court, the corral de carbón, not far away.
During the centuries-long Christian-Muslim conflict, towers were used differently by each: for the call to prayer for Muslims, bells to call Christians to theirs. The rigging of a bell in a former minaret had big symbolic meaning for victors and conquered alike.
All through Münzer’s journey, he met German merchants; like international businessmen today, foreign entrepreneurs were everywhere on the peninsula, both in Christian and former Muslim lands. The volume of international trade in the 15th century was huge, and not only in the port cities.
What Münzer Never Would Have Seen:
Foreign tourists, of whom Münzer and his friends were four, now number in the thousands. Although the Catholic Kings have statues and monuments everywhere, most of the structures that they commanded be built actually survive as 16th-17th century ones. Most buildings in the city are modern, even in Albaicín, which has retained its “Moorish” air and steep streets, now paved with small stones. As in so many places in Spain, the “Moors” are back, and there is a beautiful new mosque (and also an Islamic center) in Albaicín, though except for ladies’ headscarves, they dress and look everyone else.
Gypsies, who came on the scene in the 15th century, have long been a part of the Granada scene, as has Flamenco. Sacromonte, the old Gypsy quarter above Albaicín, is now mostly a tourist area, and Flamenco shows up there are mainly for the tourist trade.
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