Mirador San Nicolas is a favorite gathering place for both locals and tourists, including Bill Clinton, who said it offered the most beautiful view in Spain.
Dear International Living Reader,
For the perfect view of the Alhambra palace, be at the Mirador San Nicolas around sunset. A mirador is a viewpoint and this one lies at the labyrinthine heart of the Albaicin, Granada’s higgledy-piggledy old Moorish quarter of whitewashed houses, secret patios, and cobbled lanes. If you can’t make the steep climb, take the No. 31 bus from Plaza Nueva in downtown Granada. The fare is 85 euro cents ($1).
The sun doesn’t sink over the Alhambra, but the evening light turns its red clay walls to glowing rose. The backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains takes on theatrical hues of dusky pink and mauve. But don’t expect to have the vantage point all to yourself–Mirador San Nicolas is a favorite gathering place for both locals and tourists. You don’t know who you’ll meet up here–one of the most famous visitors in recent years was Bill Clinton. He said it offered the most beautiful view in Spain, and few would argue that.
The evening I visited, there was no room left to sit on the Mirador’s parapet wall. The atmosphere was almost like a party: impromptu guitar music from New Age travelers; two enterprising girls who had brought along a bottle of wine and glasses; a welter of tumbling kids and tumbling puppies.
Back in downtown Granada, I met with Antonio Carrasco, director of Oasis Inmobiliaria. His company has been specializing in properties in the Albaicin and Sacromonte neighborhoods for over 30 years. (Adjoining the Albaicin, Sacromonte is Granada’s old gypsy quarter where you can find cave homes.)
Unlike in the mid-1980s, properties in these highly-sought after areas of Granada command substantial sums. Nowadays everyone knows the value of having a view of the Alhambra. Senor Carrasco tells me of a house he sold in the Albaicin in 1983 for the equivalent of 4,000 euro ($4,810). He sold the very same house two years ago for 240,000 euro ($289,000). Today, for a two-story house of 1,100 to 1,500 square feet, you can expect to pay 360,000 to 500,000 euro ($433,000 to $600,000). During the last year, Granada properties shot up in value by an average 20%.
Not surprisingly, most young locals cannot afford houses in the Albaicin or Sacromonte–they’re now mostly sold to foreigners or companies. If you wanted to rent here, a recently restored furnished house in the Albaicin with courtyard and balcony is 900 euro ($1,085) monthly. Studio apartments are around 350 euro ($420) monthly.
For more information, contact Oasis Inmobiliaria, c/Navas 20, 1 Granada, tel +(34)958-228930; e-mail: oasis@aloasis.com; website: www.aloasis.com
Steenie Harvey
For International Living
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Further reading
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* A second home in Spain could be more affordable than you think. If you know where to look, amazing deals can be yours now in many European destinations of desire. Read on to find out where to look.
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* "All steep cobbled lanes, the High Albaicin is a haphazard jumble of white houses with wrought-iron window grilles and vine-hung terraces. Carved wooden doorways are usually closed, but you sometimes get a tantalizing glimpse of a tiled vestibule or a courtyard patio with a pattering fountain and terracotta urns brimming with flowers…" Get the details of Steenie’s adventures in Moorish Spain in the September print issue of IL, available online here for paid subscribers.
* "The Alhambra serves as a peculiar reminder that the Western world once associated Islam–certainly European Islam–with luxury…"
