Von Hispanien 117 / Granata.

Title

Von Hispanien 117 / Granata.

Map shows the city of Granada and a tower church.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

Granada is the capital of the province of Granada in Andalusia. After the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans, a settlement with the name Illiberis is documented. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the area initially came under the influence of the North African Vandal Empire, was under Eastern Roman rule for several decades after its collapse in 534, then belonged to the Iberian Empire of the Visigoths from the beginning of the 7th century and was then conquered by the Moors. After the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba, the Berber clan chief Zāwī ibn Zīrī seized power in the province in 1012 and made Granada, which was easier to defend than Madīnat Ilbīra, the seat of the Zīrīden dynasty. After the expulsion of the Almohads, the city became the capital of the Sultanate of the Naṣrids, the last Muslim-Moorish dynasty of the Emirate of Granada, from 1238 to 1492. In 1246, the then ruler of Granada, Muhammad I ibn Nasr, known as Ibn Al-Ahmar, surrendered the city to the Christian powers, and after the fall of the remaining Moorish territories, many Muslims moved to the area of Granada. In 1492, the last Nasrid ruler Mohammed XII capitulated and handed the city over to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the so-called -Catholic Monarchs, thus completing the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. According to a passage in the treaty concluded at the time, the Moorish population in Granada was allowed to continue practicing their religion freely, but the Naṣrids had to leave Granada. After revolts by the Muslims who remained in Spain, the so-called Moors, against the oppression (ban on practising their religion, expropriation) by the new rulers, they were first forcibly resettled to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula in the years 1569-1571 and then expelled to Africa in 1609-1611. Many settled in what is now Tunisia and Algeria and shaped the culture there. At the same time, Granada fell into economic insignificance. Silk production, for example, for which Granada was a center in the Middle Ages, declined completely. Granada has been the seat of an archbishopric since 1492. The University of Granada was built between 1526 and 1531 and was one of Granada's main sources of income, especially in the 20th century, after the end of the Franco dictatorship, tourism became increasingly important.