The Alhambra

In 1829 Washington Irving took up rooms inside the crumbling Moorish palace of the Alhambra in Granada, and out of that stay came this enchanting mix of travel writing, history, and legend. He wanders the silent courts and gardens once ruled by the sultans of Spain, gathers the folk tales still told by the people living among the ruins, and retells stories of buried treasure, enchanted soldiers, and doomed Moorish princesses. Part guidebook and part storybook, the collection did much to romanticize the Alhambra for the wider world and to spur its preservation. Irving’s warm, unhurried prose makes a vanished Andalusian world feel close at hand. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.