The legends of the Alhambra are many and varied, as it is a structure with eight centuries of history. This was furthered, by the way, by Washington Irving, the subject of one of our posts and author of Tales of the Alhambra. Therefore, if you are planning to visit this spectacular palatial city in Granada, the four we present in the following lines will serve to whet your appetite.
#1. The Legend of the Rose of the Alhambra
Many of the legends of the Alhambra involve love and heartbreak, featuring impossible relationships between Muslim women and Christian men. Such was the case with this story, in which three princesses (Zaida, Zoraida, and Zorahaida) were said to have been locked away by their father the king, likely Muhammad IX “The Left-Handed,” to prevent an unsuitable marriage to ‘infidels.’ However, they fell in love with three knight-soldiers imprisoned within the grounds, hatching an escape plan to marry them. Nevertheless, one of them, Zorahaida, relented at the last moment, dying of sadness some time later. It was then that ‘the rose of the Alhambra’ grew upon her grave.
#2. The ‘Stone Revenge’ of the Court of the Lions
This is another legend of the Alhambra that combines love and death. She, an Arab princess named Zaira staying temporarily in the palace complex, reportedly fell in love with a young Christian man named Arturo during one of her outings. Her father, the king, ordered the boy to be killed. To plead for mercy, Zaira entered her father’s chambers, but what she found was a diary revealing that he was not actually her father nor the king, but an impostor who had killed Zaira’s true parents long ago. In revenge, the young princess managed to gather the supposed monarch and his 11 guards in a courtyard and, with the help of a talisman she possessed, turned them into twelve stone lions… the ones you can see in the famous fountain of the Court of the Lions.
#3. Abencerrajes: The Bloodiest of the Alhambra Legends
In the legend of the Abencerrajes, there is much death and little love. Apparently, Sultan Muley Hacén (Boabdil’s father) and his brother, El Zagal, ordered the assassination of all members of the Abencerrajes clan because one of them had allegedly had a love affair with the Sultana herself, Aixa. In total, there were between 17 and 36 beheadings, according to different versions, whose blood is said to have stained the walls of the Hall of the Abencerrajes.
#4. A Very Bitter Final Farewell
Probably one of the most famous legends of the Alhambra is the one starring the last Nasrid king, Boabdil the Younger. It is said that after handing over the keys to the city following the Conquest of Granada in 1492, this deposed monarch set off into exile toward the Alpujarras, and on a hill, he turned his head to look at the Alhambra from afar one last time. On that hill, known today as the ‘Moor’s Sigh,’ his mother Aixa is said to have told him: “Weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.”
