Day 16 Nerja and Granada

Three hour drive to Granada with a short stop in the coastal town of Nerja.  The southern coast of Spain, the Costal del Sol, is one long coastal town.  Completely developed commercially and residentially.  One small town merges into the next as you drive along the coast.  Very hot and humid, people walking about in town plazas and laying out on beaches.  Very busy; people having a great time. 

Granada, on the other hand has some serious history.  As I have touched on before, libraries are filled with the centuries long battles between the Muslims (Moors) and Christians in Spain.  The Moor domination of the Iberian Peninsula was at its peak with the Alhambra in Granada.  The Alhambra is the sprawling fortress palace started in 889 with continued expansion until the final battle of the Christian Reconquista to 1492. (When the Catholics not only got rid of the Muslims, but the Jews as well).  Turning their focus to “discovering the New World”.  Tomorrow is The Alhambra, today a bit more of Catholic History.

The Basilica is another jaw-dropper, only in that the whole inside is white!  We are so used to the darker, perhaps more ornate interiors, so this is quite striking.  Indeed, when it was built, a lot of disease in the land, so the Catholic Monarch chose to whitewash the interior, for that “just scrubbed” look.  It caught on, people liked the look, and it has stayed white ever since!  The real importance, though, is the Royal Chapel of Granada attached to the church.  Her lay Queen Isabella, King Ferdinand, and their family.

We called this cathedral “Mary’s Church”, they had these depictions of Mary surrounding the basilica, 9 or 10 of them.  A lot of tradition here.

Most of us remember the royal family, especially Queen Isabella, from high school history.  She financed Christopher Columbus’ exploits to the New World, but she was also instrumental in the Inquisition.  If you weren’t Catholic, ie Muslim, Jewish or Protestant, you were to either be killed, removed, or converted.  Heresy was to be combatted at all cost.  Isabella and Ferdinand were quite good at it.

Here is “The Statue”, Christopher Columbus asking Queen Isabella for the money.

After the New World was discovered and the Inquisition on its way, she went about to unify all of Europe through marriage.  Her best laid plans to do so fell short due to early deaths of her children and grandchildren and the hoped-for control of all of Europe was denied her.  She died at age of 53.