Cuesta de Chapiz
The Cuesta de Chapiz climbs from the Darro to the crest of the Albaicin, and is graced by several ancient palaces.
One of these houses, like the street, takes its name from the morisco nobleman who lived here after the Christian conquest. The Casa de Chapiz was built in the style of the Alhambra, during the 16th century, and now houses the School of Arabic Studies.
On the far side of the Darro rises the Cuesta de los Chinos, so called because it is paved with pebbles from the river bed (chino in Spanish means pebble, as well as Chinese). This bucolic stairway climbs up between the Alhambra and the Generalife, and under the Puente Nuevo, the main entrance point to the palace grounds. Be careful not to go alone or take valuables, though, because some tourists have been waylaid here!
Only those who know Granada and its history intimately are aware that, upstream from the Paseo de los Tristes, and hidden in the dense forest of poplar trees which grows around the stream, is a fountain called the Fuente del Avellano, the Spring of the Hazlenut Tree, where the city's poets and artists gathered at the beginning of the 20th century to chat and escape the summer heat. In the background we see the abbey at the top of the hill, Abadía del Sacromonte.
