Loxa nobile Hispanie oppidum a clarissima Granatensi urbe condita

Title

Loxa nobile Hispanie oppidum a clarissima Granatensi urbe condita

Description

Bird's eye view of the city of Loya in Granada, Spain. From "Raccolta di le piu illustri e famose citta di tutto il Mondo", c. 1595. Author's signature bottom centre, also based on Civitates orbis terrarum by Braun & Hogenberg in the previous decade.

ca. 1595

Artist

Valegio (1560-)

Francesco Valegio (born 1560) was an italien painter, Lithograph and publisher in Venice until around 1580.

Historical Description

Granada is located in a protected position between the surrounding mountains, as well as with exceptionally fertile soil, which spurred an earlier settlement. First settlements were first mentioned under the name of Iliberra around 500 BC. In 711 Illiberis was conquered by the Moors and the name was Arabized to Ilbīra. In 1246, the then ruler of Granada, Muhammad I ibn Nasr called Ibn Al-Ahmar, surrendered the city of Jaen to the Christian powers after a siege that lasted for months. In 1492, the last Naṣrid ruler, Muhammad XII (Boabdil), surrendered and gave the city to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the so-called "Catholic Monarchs" (Reyes Católicos). This marked the end of the Reconquista, the "reconquest" of the Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. According to a passage of the treaty concluded in the process, the Moorish population in Granada was allowed to continue practicing their religion freely, but the Naṣrids had to leave Granada. After uprisings by the Muslims who remained in Spain, the so-called Moors, against the oppression (ban on religious practice, dispossession) by the new rulers, they were first forcibly resettled in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula in 1569-1571 and then expelled to Africa in 1609-1611. In 1500, the city provided the prelude to the partition of Italy between Spain and France: the Treaty of Partage of Granada confirmed the rights of the Crown of France to the Kingdom of Naples. The Crown of Aragon turned against its own kinship, against the collateral line of the bastard Ferdinand enfeoffed with Naples by the Pope in 1459. 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.