Spain Guide
Andalucía
The Capilla Real
Opening time: Daily 10.30/11am–12.45pm & 4–7pm, Nov– Feb 3.30–6.15pm
Price: €3.50
Address: In the centre of Granada at the southern end of Gran Vía de Colón
In addition to the city's Moorish legacy, it's worth the distinct readjustment and effort of will to appreciate the city's later Christian monuments, notably the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel). It's an impressive building, flamboyant late Gothic in style and built ad hoc in the first decades of Christian rule as a mausoleum for Los Reyes Católicos, the city's "liberators". The actual tombs are as simple as could be imagined: Fernando (marked with a not-easily-spotted "F") and Isabel, flanked by their daughter Joana ("the Mad") and her husband Felipe ("the Handsome"), resting in lead coffins placed in a plain crypt.
Above them, however – the response of their grandson Carlos V to what he found "too small a room for so great a glory" – is a fabulously elaborate monument carved in Carrara marble by Florentine Domenico Fancelli in 1517, with sculpted Renaissance effigies of the two monarchs; the tomb of Joana and Felipe alongside is a much inferior work by Ordoñez. In front of the monument is an equally magnificent reja, the work of Maestro Bartolomé of Jaén, and a splendid retablo behind depicts Boabdil surrendering the keys of Granada.
Isabel, in accordance with her will, was originally buried on the Alhambra hill, but her wealth and power proved no safeguard of her wishes. The queen's final indignity occurred during the 1980s when the candle that she asked should perpetually illuminate her tomb was replaced by an electric bulb – it was restored in 1999 following numerous protests. In the Capilla's Sacristy is displayed the sword of Fernando, the crown of Isabel and her outstanding personal collection of medieval Flemish paintings – including important works by Memling, Bouts and van der Weyden – and various Italian and Spanish paintings, including panels by Botticelli, Perugino and Pedro Berruguete.