Washington Irving Monument

This sculpture is dedicated to the figure of the famous New York writer Washington Irving (1783-1859) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death. He is considered the first American Hispanist and ambassador of the romantic vision given to the Alhambra by the 19th century travellers. Irving managed to lodge in the palatine city for some time, and was fascinated by a decadent Alhambra dreamt about and with a glorious past impregnating every corner of the precincts. Here in this Nasrid palace his popular Tales of the Alhambra were born, formed thanks to the oral tradition of the local residents, a mixture of real and unreal, which made his writing enchant many travellers of different periods who came to Granada to live and experience his history during his stay in the palace of imagination.

The sculpture of 2.15 metres high was inaugurated in 2009, and represents the writer standing on a marble-type stone pedestal where we can read the inscription “Son of the Alhambra”, which he liked to call himself. He was elegantly dressed and had a certain air of adventurer, carrying in his left hand a notebook where he recorded the sensations he felt during his trip. It is cast in bronze giving it a greenish colour, which blends with the natural green of the woods. At his feet and on the pedestal, a Nasrid capital turned upside down, there is a travelling bag and a briefcase of symbolic drawings, which inspired the sculptor, Julio Lopez Hernandez in the encounter of two worlds, Irving’s original one, America, and Granada.