|
The austerely beautiful and often snow-capped Sierra Nevada forms a backdrop
to the attractive city of Granada, last stronghold of
the Nasrid Moors. We shall be staying near the great palace of the Alhambra,
where airy halls, elegant courtyards and exquisite arabesque decoration
echo the refinement of the court. Adjacent are the terraced gardens, canals
and pavilions of the Generalife, the royal summer palace.
After lunch we continue to the 16th-century monastery church of San
Jerónimo and the resplendent Baroque Cartuja.
The villages of the Alpujarras, whence the Moors fled
from the Christians in 1492, are set in a landscape of terraced fields
and high pastures, graced with citrus trees, almond blossom, olive groves
and vineyards. From Lanjaron, a spa with a ruined Moorish
castle, we come to Orgiva, with its Renaissance church
and Yegen, where Gerald Brenan wrote the evocative ‘South
from Granada’. We end in the town of Guadix, where
the notable sights are a Moorish Alcazaba, a sandstone cathedral with
a rococo façade and a district of remarkable cave dwellings.
A morning in Granada will feature the Cathedral, the
Chapel Royal and a walk through the Albaicín,
nucleus of the old Nasrid citadel. We will visit the 11th-century Moorish
baths and the courtyard garden of a private townhouse or carmen. Later
we will explore the ancient Roman spa of Alhama de Granada,
a lovely town set on the edge of a gorge, comparable with the more frequented
Ronda. There will be a private evening reception with tapas at the Rodriguez-Acosta
Foundation.
A crossing point between Andalucia and Castile, Jaen
is rich in historic buildings and art treasures. Dominated by the fortress
of Santa Catalina and the twin-towered cathedral, masterpiece of the Andalucian
architect Andres de Vandelvira, it boasts the most important Moorish baths
in Spain. We continue to Baeza, with its harmonious architectural
styles ranging from the Romanesque church of Santa Cruz to the Renaissance
arcades of the University and the Isabelline façade of the Palace
of Jabalquinto. At the gracious walled town of Ubeda,
founded as a Moslem medina, we shall be staying at a 16th-century palace,
now a parador, on the main square. Ubeda is known to connoisseurs for
its Renaissance buildings, including the ornate chapel of El Salvador,
the church of Santa Maria and a number of aristocratic mansions. We will
be received in two of these private palaces. Finally, there will be an
option of a short excursion to the romantic ruins of the castle of La
Iruela, set in the beautiful mountain scenery of the Sierra de Cazorla.
|
