Granada, Spain

Granada is a city of roughly 230,000 residents in Andalusia, sitting at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Its defining landmark is the Alhambra, a 13th- and 14th-century Nasrid palace-fortress built on a 740-metre hill known as Sabika, which became the last Muslim capital on the Iberian Peninsula before its surrender in 1492. Within the same grounds stands the Charles V Palace, begun in 1528, a Renaissance building that is square on the outside and circular inside. Across the Darro River, the UNESCO-listed Albaicín quarter preserves narrow lanes and 16th-century carmen courtyard houses. The poet and playwright Federico García Lorca was born near the city in 1898.