Granada

Granada was the final Nasrid emirate, surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 — the same year Columbus sailed. The Alhambra is what survives: a fortified palace complex up on a red hill, with the Generalife gardens beside it. The Albayzín, the old Moorish quarter across the gorge, is a maze of whitewashed lanes and miradores. Sacromonte, beyond it, is the historic Romani neighborhood with its cave-houses and flamenco. Granada is where Lorca was born, where he was killed in the civil war, and where the city now keeps his memory tightly.