Granada, the Alhambra Decree and the End of Sepharad

Granada's former Jewish quarter, the Realejo, occupied the hillside below the Alhambra, its medieval layout now largely absorbed into the modern city, though the district's name and general topography remain recognizable. No synagogue survives, and the community's medieval traces are documented mainly through Nasrid and later Castilian archives, but the Alhambra itself — where the expulsion decree was finalized in the Hall of the Ambassadors — gives the visit an unusually precise historical anchor.

Granada's Jewish community had a long and, under much of Nasrid rule, comparatively stable history, contributing officials and physicians to the emirate's court even as conditions varied under different rulers. The conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1492 completed the Reconquista, and within weeks, working from Granada itself, the monarchs finalized the Edict of Expulsion, giving Spain's Jews until the end of July to leave or convert.

The Edict of Expulsion, signed on 31 March 1492 and often called the Alhambra Decree for the palace where it was completed, ended over a millennium of continuous Jewish presence in Iberia and set in motion one of the largest forced migrations in medieval European history, with communities scattering across North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Italy and, within a few years, Portugal — itself the site of a further expulsion order in 1497.

Granada is visited with a private guide who situates the Alhambra Decree within the palace's broader history, alongside the Realejo district and Andalusian food and wine appointments, generally as a concluding stop on the Andalusian segment.