Sacromonte

Our hotel is located at the edge of old town and very close to the bus stops. Very easy to get places in Granada. Buses are large sized vans that manage to make it down some very narrow streets.

Sacromonte has for centuries been the home of gypsies, bohemians and Flemish artists. Gypsies settled in Granada in the eighteenth century, The Gypsies, like the Jews, are a group that has preserved its pure racial identity over the centuries. The gypsies are thought to originally belong to the poorest castes of people from India who were nomadic, offered skills in blacksmithing, basket weaving and sewing as they travelled through. Their "homeless ways" were of concern and they were forced eventually to "settle". A little known fact is that at one time these people were considered genetically unfit by the Nazis and they were the 2nd most "exterminated" group of people after the Jews in WW2.

Of note is the difference in vegetation between the areas north and south of the river with the northing being lush and green (where the Alhumbra is located) and the south dry and relatively bare with prickly pear and large agave plants. This less desirable land became home to the "less desirables" of the society who were persecuted: gypsies, moristas, and negros (freed slaves of the Arabs who departed after the 1500s). The hills offered cheap housing (dug out of the sedimentary soil of smooth stones, sand and soil that the glaciers left behind).

The Sacromonte offers views of indescribable beauty: the towers of the Alhambra, the white slopes of the Albaycin, the Valparaiso valley and the River Darro. The caves of Sacromonte are grouped around ravines, forming what amounts to streets, and the next stop is a visit to the cave museum.Read more