El Realejo: Echoes of Sepharad beneath the Alhambra

El Realejo, at the foot of the Alhambra, was Granada’s Jewish quarter from the arrival of the Muslims in the 8th century until the expulsion of 1492. Then known as Garnata al-Yahud (“Granada of the Jews”), it was home to one of the most important Hebrew communities in al-Andalus. In the 11th century, under the Zirids, the community experienced great prosperity, although the massacre of 1066, in which thousands of Jews died and Yosef ibn Nagrela was killed, marked the beginning of its decline.

After the Christian conquest and the expulsion decree by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, the Jewish quarter officially disappeared. Today, strolling through El Realejo means discovering traces of that millennial presence in the layout of its streets and in the city’s memory.