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Before the city of Granada existed there was a settlement nearby, situated in the foothills of the Sierra de Elvira and named after this mountain range, a place the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians passed through. Where the city Granada is situated today the Romans built their lliberis, a city that hosted the first Christian Council in Spain in the fourth century, between 300 and 303. lliberis later passed into the hands of the Visigoths. In 711 the Moors invaded the lberian Peninsula and the first chronicles praised the lands of Granada comparing them with Damascus. The new Moorish city was inhabited by a large Jewish community, that guaranteed its safety while the Moorish legions marched north. After the battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212 the King al-Hamar de Arjona peacefully handed over the castle of Jaen and declared himself a subject of King Fernando the third under the condition that the King of Castile allowed him to found a new Kingdom in Granada. This was the beginning of the history of Moorish Granada. Al-Hamar chose the Sabika hill as the site to build his new palace that he called the Alhambra. The Moors stayed in the Alhambra for over two hundred years. The arrival of the Christian King Fernando and Queen Isabella to the last Moorish bastion on the lberian Peninsula involved a radical change to the model of the city. The Mosques, at this time converted to Christian churches, were the object of beautiful remodeling plans carried out by Mudejar craftsmen. The Cathedral, built beside the Royal Chaple, is a tribute to grandeur, especially in the areas that the Renaissance architect Diego de Siloe projected. The Moorish Albaycin suburb still has its Andalusian appearance and from the end of the 18th and throughout the 19th century, Granada became a kind of Mecca for Romantic travelers. Another monument in Granada that is an obligatory visit is the Royal Chapel. Erected by order of the Catholic Monarchs, it was built by Enrique Egas in 1504 to hold their tombs. The Royal Chapel has important sculptures and Flemish paintings and famous triptych of the Passion od Christ, the work of Dierick Bouts, which belonged to the collection of Isabella the Catholic Queen. Because of its quality and size it is the most important painting in Granada. The cathedral is situated next to the Royal Chapel, right in the center of Granada, it is considered to be one of the greatest Renaissance churches in Spain, its construction was started in 1505. | 
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