Legends of Granada

-“Legend of the gate of Ecce Homo”.

A young apprentice who worked with the stone came from the north to Granada and was looking for
work in the cathedral. His goal was to convince Siloam to recruit him to work with him as he would
learn a lot and open many doors. Siloam had no time to attend the apprentice so he told him in a
rude way, to sculpt a demon into a stone. Siloam was surprised by the demon made by the
apprentice and decided to place it in a privileged place in the Granada cathedral. This was then used
to sculpt the Ecce Homo that gives name to the door. And this young apprentice turns out to be Juan
de Maeda, who was part of Siloam’s gang.

(leyenda n° 1, Alejandra Cantero)

-“Children fighting”
The legend begins in a room, where two children play and in the heat of the fictitious fight they rush
against a wall so flimsy and old that it falls apart , falling between bricks and plasters, a stream of
ounces and doubloons.

The story continues that the father, whose economy was in permanent crisis, takes such joy that he
orders to make a marble bas-relief with the image of two children fighting and puts it on the facade
of the house. The image ended up baptizing the street. Whether the plaque existed or not is not
proven, although in the many reforms that the street suffered in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries it could well be lost.

(leyenda n°2, Mariem Bel)

-“Legend of the seven dwarfs of the Alhambra”

There were seven members of the family of the abencerrajes who lived in the Alhambra and were
responsible for defending the fortress. They were killed by the king. This event is related to another
interesting legend, since the seven members who became ghosts come to the city once every 100
years.

(Leyenda n°4, Alejandra Fernández)

Legend of "Melegís and the elm of the church"

Melegís was the capital of the kingdom of Granada and in its church, an elm tree stood at the door.
Legend has it that the elm belonged to Mateo, an old man who was obsessed with gambling, used to
arrive at dawn at his house, without money... One day, he was invited by one of his fellow revelers
to a farmhouse where they had prepared an interesting game. After many bets, Mateo saw his good
cards and decided to bet everything against a sinister man who was in black. He bet all his money
and even stole the church brush to bet it. He lost the bet, and the man made him a pact: If Matthew
placed on the altar a satanic object that he would give him, he would give him a lot of money to
replenish what he had stolen. Matthew accepted. As Sunday arrived, the priest asked him for the
money, and Matthew killed him. Finally when he tried to place the object he failed to enter the altar.
The sinister man told him he had to pay for his betrayal, and turned him into an elm tree. People in
the village tell us that they had to restore the church floor several times because the elm in the
entrance spoils it trying to reach the altar.
(Leyenda n° 6, .Marta Rodriguez)

“Legend of the Royal Chancery”

The Royal Chancery of Granada was a high court for the administration of justice and the first
building for this in Spain. They say that ghosts, spirits and souls of the damned walk through the
corridors that they traveled in life while they sought justice that they did not find on Earth. Their
executioners walk through the rooms wanting to dispense justice, even from the other side... Until
the XIX century the Royal Chancery of Granada was one of the 5 courts that had an executioner, a
sinister figure who continued to be a worker of the courthouse until the middle of the XX century

(Leyenda n° 7, Cristina Martinez)

-“Door of the Granadas”

The name of “Puerta de Las Granadas” comes from the three pomegranates that decorate its
pediment.

Legend has it that there is a treasure hidden near the door and that only the person who gets to eat
a pomegranate, under the lintel of the door without falling a grain to the ground will discover the
sumptuous treasure.

(Leyenda n°8, Lucia Santiago)

“legend in the Charles V’s palace”

Midnight; the lady feels a tummy ache; she retreats to the latrine and there. The birth of Charles V,
heir to the Holy Roman Empire and the throne of Spain happened in a latrine. People wonder how
she could mistake a tummy ache for a birth. Despite the impetus from Philip the beautiful to
accompany Joan in her birth, she did not succeed. Juana gave birth alone to Carlos V.Juana tried to
call that child Juan, in honor of the heir that Castile and Aragon had just lost. But Felipe decided to
call him Carlos, in honor of his grandfather Carlos ‘El Temerario’. Besides, Felipe wanted the baby to
be a child, since the male offspring was the quietest thing at that time. As Teresa Cunillera said: «The
courts of Aragon did not accept a queen easily. Then it was a male grandson of course that
facilitated the way.»

(leyenda n°9, Alejandra Sánchez)

“Legend of the unfinished cathedral tower”

The legend of the unfinished tower of the Cathedral. As always something happens, as rare as having
to dismantle the body of the tower of a cathedral, soon it was the talk of all Granada, but in a low
voice, it was not going to reach the ears of the Holy Office. Many people said that the tower was
cursed, because there lived a few years Alonso Cano, when he returned from Madrid, who they said
had killed his wife, and was in prison, and even became tortured, the truth was never known and
after walking through several points of Spain, came to Granada to be ordained a priest. For this
reason the people of Granada said that the tower where he lived was bewitched, and that no one
could raise it higher, and in fact so it remained today, that the bells are powered by computer, and
there are no more bell-ringers, up there only nest owls and owls, God knows, maybe they’re the
witches of enchantment.

(Leyenda n° 10, Paula Garcia)

“Legend of the Saint Jerome monastery”
The Bible reveals that when Noah released a dove, she returned with an olive branch in her beak,
implying that it was the only plant species to survive the flood. From that moment on, the Christians
considered this solemn tree as an ambassador of peace. Him and the dove, of course.

(Leyenda n°11, Lucía Valverde)

“Legend: The House of Castril”

Legend has it that Zafra lived with his 18-year-old daughter Elvira. and Elvira ended up falling in love
with Alfonso de Quintanilla the son of an enemy family of Zafra.

These were seen some nights in his room with the help of a page. One of these nights were about to
be surprised by Zafra but Alonso gave time to escape. When Elvira’s father opened the door, he
found his daughter half naked next to the page helping them. When Father Elvira saw the two of
them he thought that the page was the one who had dishonored his daughter and returned in anger
decided to have the servant hanged from the balcony.

Hernando de Zafra had the balcony boarded and the phrase "waiting for her from heaven" written
on the wall. Elvira was locked in her room and one day she could not bear it anymore and ended her
life with a powerful poison.

(Leyenda n°13, Taib Kabouh)

“Legend of the shooting house”

Building located in the Realejo, built between 1530 and 1540 , current museum and archive of the
themes of the Alhambra This building shares a history with Federico García Lorca, being in its living
room ( originally from the 16th century ) where he read one of his books Between the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries , was the Literary Academy of the Granadas Venegas , place of literary
encounters , whose guests were the best poets and humanists of the time ( Juan Latino , the poet
Arjona ...)

(Leyenda n° 14, Carmen Rojas)

“Legend of the Royal Hospital”

Legend has it that a spirit lurks in the hospital Real, where he came in to recover from an alleged
mental illness. Many claimed to have seen a ghostly figure walking through the halls of the ancient
Old people’s home, and even heard screams and complaints about the lights in the room.

(leyenda n°16, Dario Reyes)

“The Royal Chapel of Granada”

In 1504, Queen Isabella I of Castile became seriously ill in Medina del Campo (Valladolid), ordering
the construction of a chapel in Granada on 13 September. This meant building, decorating and
furnishing a building where symbolism and message are based.

On the death of Queen Isabel, on November 26, her body was provisionally deposited in the convent
of San Francisco de la Alhambra, until the chapel was finished.
The person in charge of this construction was Enrique Egas, who completed the work in Gothic style,
in 1517 (a year after the death of King Fernando II of Aragon). Although the kings were not buried
here until 4 years later, when so ordered by his grandson, Emperor Charles I.

In addition, given his devotion to this city, Charles I decided to convert the burial of his grandparents
into the family dynasty pantheon. Up to nine members of the royal family were buried here. Philip II
built the Royal Site of El Escorial and took the bodies of his mother, Isabel de Portugal, his first wife,
Princess Maria and two brothers, who died as children.

And until the middle of the eighteenth century a new resurgence of the Chapel did not appear,
where Ferdinand VI proposed to restore as much as possible the decadence of the Royal Chapel of
Granada and its endowable goods and that the memory of the Catholic Monarchs of Granada be
perpetuated.

(Leyenda n°17, Alba Vega)

“Legend in the House of the Cat”

In the Placeta de San Gregorio, gate of the Albayzín, there is an abandoned plot. There was until
forty years ago the famous House of the Cat or house-botica more known in the neighborhood. And
there, supposedly, took place two and a half centuries ago the most horrendous crime of jealousy of
the local history: a husband would have killed his young wife and the warden of the crime of the
Kingdom to catch them in full yoke. The matter has since been covered in books, guides and
newspapers, with some variations. It is not known how much was true and how much legend. A bas-
relief of a cat and a mouse on the door, as a coat of arms granted by the King, is at the origin of the
mystery. The most interesting thing about this story is that one of the oldest pharmacies in Granada
has been in this abandoned plot, next to the Zirí wall, since at least the 18th century.

(Leyenda n° 18, Huma Arbab)

“Legend of the prince’s field”

This square is one of the most emblematic and charming in Granada and is said to contain many of
the vestiges of Granada.

In the Nasrid period, the Prince 's Camp was known as the Loma Camp and various public events
took place there. It also housed fertile orchards, known as the Alameda de Mu'ammar.

This story, more than a legend, is a historical fact. The field of the prince is one of the main squares
of the Realejo, was reformed by the Catholic Monarchs by marriage of his son Infante Don Juan with
Margaret of Austria.In the end, the prince could not celebrate his wedding, because six months later
he died in Salamanca, according to sexual exhaustion. Despite this, popular tradition created the
legend that the name Campo del Príncipe comes from the death of Don Juan when he fell off his
horse.

In the center of the square is the Christ of Favors, around it are told different miracles, myths and
legends, from saving maidens of knights, to protecting people from the plague when it devastated
the province of Granada in the middle of the seventeenth century.

(Leyenda n° 19, Angela Salas)