Fall of Granada

2 January 1492: the Alhambra changes hands

Boabdil formally surrendered Granada and the Alhambra to Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon on 2 January 1492, implementing capitulations negotiated the previous November.

Castilian troops entered the Alhambra through the Gate of Seven Floors and occupied the fortified palace complex. Gutierre de Cárdenas is associated with the secret advance occupation that preceded the public transfer.

Columbus's first-voyage journal says he witnessed the monarchs' banners being raised on the Alhambra, and the defeated ruler leaving Granada and paying homage to the monarchs and to Prince Juan.

Brought forward by fear of revolt

Granada was isolated, besieged and threatened by hunger. Fear that opposition inside the city might derail the agreement helped bring the transfer forward, ahead of the forty days the capitulations had allowed.

Íñigo López de Mendoza, count of Tendilla, was entrusted with securing the conquered fortress and city.

What ended, and what did not

By the end of the day royal standards flew over an occupied Alhambra, the Nasrid government had ceased to rule, and Boabdil had withdrawn toward the Alpujarras.

The transfer ended independent Muslim political rule in Iberia, not Muslim presence: a large population remained in Granada, initially under the capitulations' protections for religion, property, law and local institutions.

The chronicles differ over the precise sequence and location of the several handovers, and the celebrated 1882 painting by Francisco Pradilla is not eyewitness evidence for the ceremony.