Alhambra

Think of Granada and it's the Alhambra that comes to mind.  A fortress, a palace (several in fact), a citadel, a landmark, a UNESCO World Heritage site - all that.

The Alhambra towers over Granada, and you can see it best from the Albaicin, the old Arab part of the city, which has its own hill.

It looks medieval, as indeed it is, with additions and extensions built over several hundred years.  The best known parts, the Nasrid Palaces and the Generalife (gardens with the summer palace) were built between the 13th and 14th century.   It's a long and complex history:

http://www.alhambradegranada.org/en/info/historicalintroduction.asp

Inside the walls, the gardens and the palaces have a totally different character -serene, elegant, beautiful.

We're here in winter, when it's warm in the sun and chilly at night.   But the gardens here are clearly designed to provide cool restful spots from the heat of summer, along with the music of fountains,

Inside, the rooms and courtyards are decorated with dizzying detail, walls, ceilings, windows, floors - with tile, with wood, with plaster, with stone -

Every doorway and window frames a view, patterns repeat and vary endlessly, and no matter how long you look, you can't take it all in.