Two major events occurred in the history of Spain in 1492: the discovery of America and the conquest of Granada. At the time, the fall of the last moorish kingdom in the Iberian peninsula was by far the most important one. Granada was the capital of a sophisticated, tolerant, languid and rich court. When the Alhambra finally fell, after a twenty year war, the Catholic Kings were in a hurry to make their imprint on the city, turning it quickly into a Christian outpost. A visit to Granada makes clear the incredible efforts made by Spain, then and in the following centuries, to bestow on the city a grandiose architectural patrimony. But no church, and no palace, not even the great Renaissance residence built by Charles V in the Alhambra, can rival in charm and delicacy the Nazari dynasty's palaces.