On Tuesday we walked through a good chunk of the center. The main part of this tour was focused on the Cathedral of Granada. This cathedral is so stotic. First off, it is weird that the city is not built with it necessarily in the center anymore. The city has grown so much that you have to take alleys to get to the cathedral and it almost looks out of place between all of the stores. This is how it is with every cathedral I've seen so far. Its clothing store, pastry place, mercado, el corte ingles, cathedral, clothing store, bread place, phone place, etc. It should look out of place, but I've gotten used to it and its a cool reminder of the history that is in this city. Back to the Cathedral of Granada, the architecture and artwork in and of itself is beautiful. There was so much thought and time put into these wonderful masterpieces. There are sculptures of the gospel writers, one of Peter, one of Paul, one of the Virgin Mary, the four named angels in the Catholic Bible, and the fallen angel! This cathedral is the only cathedral in the world to have the fallen angel (the Devil) sculpted into a cathedral. Its so eerie looking, almost looks more like a gargoyle than an exquisite piece of art. It is a place that still has a feeling of holiness and tranquility (even though there are gypsies and metal bands there are night). I would love to go back on my own in order to marvel more and to ponder what life was like when the cathedral was first built.
Moving on to Thursday, we traveled to and through the Albayzin! The Albayzin was the place where people first started living because it was on top of the hill. As the civilizations grew, the further down the hill they lived. Therefore at the top of the hill is some of the oldest history. This is seen in the streets, houses, and cathedrals. The picture below is a Catholic church that was built on top of one of the oldest Mosques in Granada. It is unfortunate sometimes that the Catholics were so set on destroying the Islam communities because a lot of the history was lost. (Thankfully there is still La Alhambra which I'll learn more about on Saturday).
History bit: Before the Catholics kings overtook Granada, they and the Moors (Islamic leaders) fought constantly. In the Moorish areas, if it was found out that you were Christian you were killed, as the same goes for if you were in the Catholic area and were found to be Moorish you were also killed. We were told one way of knowing if one was Moorish in a Catholic area was to serve pig when you had visitors. If they ate the pig, they were Catholic but if they did not they were Moorish. I'm certain the Moors had their ways of knowing besides realizing when someone was not following the 5 rules of the Islamic religion.
We climbed and climbed....and climbed and climbed....and oh! we still climbed until we finally made it to the top. And my was it worth it! From the Albayzin you could see the center, the river, and the all beautiful La Alhambra. The sight was completely breath taking and word robbing. I was speechless. I wanted to sit and look across the entire area and just be engulfed into the entire view. I could spend hours there. Once again, the timed tour didn't give me the option, but I know I will be back so that I can marvel, I can journal, I can pray and see God through this sight. I've taken a picture, but I promise you just as my words don't give it justice, neither does this picture fully explain everything I saw.
He explorado, soñado, y descubrió
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