The Alcaicería of Granada, in the vicinity of the Cathedral, is a typical neighborhood of Muslim culture, with narrow streets around which the houses were lined and the souk or market where silk was manufactured and sold was located. The Grand Bazaar of Granada extended from Plaza Nueva to Plaza Bib-Rambla, in the very heart of the Islamic medina, near the main mosque. The origin of the Arabic name is Latin. In the bazaar, there were inns for merchants to stay during their stays.
It was protected like a citadel, by a wall-house: a quadrilateral with fronts to Zacatín (Saqqâtîn or street of the rag-and-bone dealers), Tinte (Darbalcata or street of the inkwells), Oficios and Bibarrambla, provided with nine doors that gave access to the souk, which were closed all night, thus preventing passage, and guards watched the inner streets.
In our current era it is a tourist reference point, with shops selling Granada crafts, its popular Fajalauza pottery, the wooden inlay or marquetry, and the coloured glass street lamps, as well as bookstores and jewellery stores.
With the conquest of the Catholic Monarchs, it was renamed the Royal Site and Fort of the Alcaicería of Granada, under the government of the Marquises of Mondéjar, wardens and captains general of the Alhambra and the Kingdom of Granada.
In the 16th century it had about 200 shops, all small with a single folding door, painted red ochre, which also served as a shutter to protect the goods from the rain and the sun, with textile businesses (cloths, linen, gold, linen), or leather work, shoes, cocoa, spices, etc.
On July 20, 1843, a fire broke out in a match shop on Calle Mesones, completely destroying it. It was rebuilt in a neo-Arabic and romantic style, very fashionable in the 19th century, by the architects Salvador Amador, Juan Pugnaire, Baltasar Romero and José Contreras. The original layout was modified, aligning some streets as well as widening some of them and reducing the space of their location.
You can't leave Granada without visiting this charming neighborhood that THE SUN PLACES will show you and where you can stay in one of our luxury apartments in Granada