The Alhambra and the Albaicín now closer together via the Cuesta de los Chinos

The Cuesta de los Chinos has just been opened to the public. The work to relay and repair the paving and lighting system has now been completed and we can once more enjoy a stroll up this mediaeval street linking the Alhambra and the Albaicín.
This morning Reynaldo Fernández, the Director of the Alhambra, and Isabel Nieto, the Councillor responsible for Town Planning at Granada City Council, did just that on a walk from La Mimbre to the Puerta de Hierro (Iron Gate) in the Torre de los Picos, half-way down the hill.
All the representatives of the different institutions invited to this event, including members of the Low Albaicín Residents Association said that they were “very pleased” with the results of the building works, which had a budget of 261,998.65€ for the first phase running from Paseo del Aljibillo to the Puerta de Hierro and were jointly funded (50% each) by the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife and the Albaicín Granada Agency, thanks to a collaboration agreement signed between the two institutions.
The work involved replacing the existing Granada cobblestone paving with a new surface made of the same material. In the upper stage a new concrete base was laid as a support for the cobblestone paving and in the lower stage the existing damaged base was renovated and new paving was laid on top.
The public street-lighting system has also been changed, the electricity lines have been laid underground away from view, damaged connection points have been repaired and urban furniture has been installed throughout the area, which covers 1,750m2.
During his visit, Reynaldo Fernández Manzano announced that they are now working on the second phase, which will run from the Rey Chico to the Hotel Bosque de la Alhambra, popularly known as the Hotel Reuma; and on a third phase between the Hotel Reuma and the Placeta de las Chirimías, in other words from what was once the Cármen del Granadillo to the Carmen de Santa Engracia.
The works have been jointly coordinated by the City Council’s Technical Department and by the Technical Department of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife.
Five years ago in 2010, the Department of Gardens, Woods and Vegetable Gardens carried out a project to Protect the Earth Walls in the Cuesta de los Chinos in which they repaired the wall of earth between the vegetable gardens in the Generalife and the Cuesta de los Chinos (also known as the Cuesta del Rey Chico), in view of “the risk to visitors from landslides caused by water filtering through the banks in the vegetable gardens, water from irrigation or from the rain itself, which leads to the sandstone matrix that holds the stones together slipping away through the holes left behind by falling rocks, which could lead to accidents”.
The street’s other name Cuesta del Rey Chico comes from the famous legend in which Aixa, the mother of Boabdil, the “Rey Chico” or “Little King”, enabled her son to escape so that he could lead the rebels, whose stronghold was in the Albaicín, against his father.
From where the Cuesta de los Chinos starts in the city to the Alhambra entrance pavilion there is a distance of 860m. There are 1220m to the inside of the Monument and 970 m to the Manuel de Falla Cultural Centre and the Carmen de los Mártires.
For more information, please see www.alhambra-patronato.es