Our final day in Granada and today we set off through the Albaicin area to Sacromonte which is where the cave houses are and is the home to the flamenco. Our first stop was Saromonte Abbey which is right on the top of the Valparaiso Hill, unfortunately what had not been clear from the website is that you can only visit as part of a guided tour and they only go on the hour, luckily it was about 11.30 by the time we got there and the next tour started at 12.00 so we went and had another look at the spectacular views of the Alhambra then went and sat inside where it was slightly cooler and waited for the tour to start. The first building you visit is the museum where there are a number of artefacts one of the main reasons for the Abbey’s fame is the lead books which were found, as well as a library containing the original books from the 1500, unfortunately the library is currently closed but some of the lead books are on display, they are round pieces of lead with text on them which are believed to have belonged to followers of St John of God. Next we visited the seventeenth century church which had a magnificent alter piece which was being painstakingly cleaned by two women with what looked like cotton buds! Considering how big it is and how much they have to do I think they are fighting a loosing battle. Finally you visit the catacombs where St Cecilio, the first bishop and Patron of Granada suffered martyrdom, although they don’t say in what way or what for. There are a number of very ornate chapels which have been expertly carved and marble alter pieces included to make them even more dramatic after wondering through the caves you exit onto a walk way that looks directly over the Alhambra. The tour of the Abbey took about an hour so once we had finished looking round we walked back down the hill to the Cave House Museum – which is actually up another hill but as the only way to get to it is to walk it was empty when we arrived. We stopped and had a drink before walking round the museum which I really enjoyed, it has 11 separate caves that recreate the dwellings from the mid 18 – mid 1900’s. They have a kitchen, stables, a couple of traditional trades houses, basketry, ceramics, a blacksmith’s forge and a weavers loom which must have been very noisy as the cave it very small. The cave houses were created by a couple of groups of people, the ones associate with the museum were gipsy’s who moved to the area to avoid persecution and created a community here providing trades as well as farming and flamenco was created in their down time as a way of entertaining themselves. The second group of people are said to be the freed slaves of the negro caves, the story goes that this area was populated by rich Arabs with a number of slaves and when the christians took over the area they were forced to free their slaves. Most headed back to the Arab countries but as they didn’t have any slaves couldn’t carry their treasures with them so they took it to the hills and buried it planning to come back for it later. The freed slaves with no work or money had limited options but had heard their previous masters talking about burying their treasure so they went up to the hills to see if they could find it. They ended up living in the holes they dug while looking for the treasure which created the second set of cave dwellings. It doesn’t say if any of them actually found any treasure but at least they had somewhere to live! By the time we had finished walking round the museum it was 2.30 so time for lunch which we had in a nice little taverna on top of the hill then we set off for the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel which we hadn’t visited the other day. It was not clear from the website if it would be open as one piece of information said it closed in the afternoon reopening at 6.30 and the other said it was open all afternoon and closed at 6.30. As it turned out the latter was true so we picked up our audio guide and set off to explore. It was built between 1506 and 1521 and is the final resting place of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile who were responsible for uniting the Spanish people under one monarchy. They were also the start of the dynasty that at various times were responsible for the monarchy of Portugal, England, Netherlands, Burgundy and Austria. You enter via the Exchange which was built in 1518 as an open space for commerce, this leads into the Nave and finally the Royal Tombs which are very grand and ornate which I guess only befits the tombs of kings and queens responsible for the creation of a nation. After completing the tour of the tombs we headed off outside and a final walk round the square, by this time it was about 4.30 so after a drink in the main square we went back to the hotel to have a relax before getting changed and heading off out again this evening.
