LA ALCAICERIA

This large Granada bazaar can be accessed from Piazza Bib-Rambla, since the current alcaicería is an interlacing of alleys located between this square, Calle Reyes Católicos, the cathedral and Gran Vía. Built in 1318 by Sultan Yusuf I, the former space was designed to house a gigantic silk market and took its name from the Arabic al-Qassaryya, Caesar's house, in gratitude to the Byzantine Emperor Caesar Justino I who, in the sixth century, granted the Arabs the exclusive right to manufacture and sell silk. This product was then accompanied by many other fabrics, taffeta, velvet, scarves and various spices. The current replica occupies only half the surface area of the old enclosure which, at its peak, went as far as the old Nazarí Aljima mosque, the current Sagrario church and the beginning of the first ascents of the Plaza Nueva. At that time, it was flanked by 10 access doors closed every night and housed up to 200 shopkeepers, housed in one- or two-storey houses in which the ground floor was used as a shop, not to mention the many guards and quality controllers of the goods. When the Catholic Monarchs arrived, the market was run by a governor, himself directly appointed by the governor of the Alhambra, who was in charge of its supervision until the 19th century. After the fire that completely destroyed it in 1843, it was completely rebuilt in a romantic and neo-Arab style, but in a more modest space. Smaller, more modern and less flamboyant, it now houses many small shops of local crafts, such as Fajalauza ceramics, wood inlays, leather work and lighting.