The Court of the Lions appears on a commemorative stamp issued by the Spanish Mail Service dedicated to the Brand Spain

The Spanish Mail Service CORREOS today presented the stamp in the Brand Spain series dedicated to Spanish heritage. The image on the stamp is of the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra, Granada. This stamp is the fourth in the series and is dedicated to the “P” for Patrimonio (Heritage) and contains all the special features of this issue: the Spanish letter “ñ” in the watermark, the distinctive colours of the Brand Spain and the inclusion of a cartoon.
The presentation was attended by the President of Correos, Javier Cuesta Nuin; the Director of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife, María del Mar Villafranca Jiménez; the Director of Institutional Affairs of the Office of the Government High Commissioner for the Brand Spain, Ignacio García Valdecasas; accompanied by the Delegate of the Regional Government of Andalusia in Granada, Sandra García Martín, and the Sub-Delegate, of the Government, Santiago Pérez López.
Conscious of the wealth of our heritage and committed to disseminating it throughout the world, CORREOS has decided to highlight the “strengths” of this country by issuing a series of seven stamps, named “Brand Spain”, which highlight essential aspects of our country related with the letters that form the word España: “E” Empresa (Business); “S” Sol y Turismo (Sun and Tourism); “P” Patrimonio material e inmaterial (Tangible and intangible heritage); “A” Arte (Art); “Ñ” Lengua (Language) and “A” Avance (Advance) in the form of R+D+I  into the future.
The stamp is printed in offset on gummed paper. It measures 40.9 x 28.8 mm and comes in sheets of 12 stamps. The face value of the stamp is 1 euro, which will enable it to travel all over the world.
World Heritage
Due to its long historical tradition, Spain is a rich mosaic in which culture after culture, people after people, and different civilizations separated by huge expanses of time have all been pieced together. A long succession of conquests, occupations and colonization: the Romans, Christianity, Islamization and evangelization. All of this took place within the frontiers of our kingdoms and beyond them in other continents. Our culture is the fruit of assimilation and interbreeding.
This is why our historic and artistic heritage is so vast, varied and rich. It stretches from the first known presence of prehistoric man in Atapuerca right through to the present day. Those who ventured into our territory: the Romans, Goths, Muslims, Europeans among many others left many traces of their passing along the way. And we have also brought things back from countries in which we were the conquerors, missionaries and Creoles.
We have a vast heritage in terms of archaeological remains and religious, military and civil buildings. We also have artists who continue to shine out beyond the confines of time in all fields of culture: painting, literature, music to mention just a few of a long list covering all of man’s creative activities.
Our heritage is also the landscape that was bequeathed to us by our ancestors and the different civilizations which together formed our idiosyncrasies. Spain is second in the world for the number of natural spaces with 45 biosphere reserves declared by UNESCO. Our environmental heritage covers 14 National Parks and 126 Natural Parks including the largest ecological reserve in the whole of Europe, the Doñana National Park.
The institution that manages the state assets that once belonged to the Spanish crown is known as Patrimonio Nacional (National Heritage): it looks after 8 Royal palaces, 13 monasteries and convents and a large number of historic gardens, forests and other natural spaces.
UNESCO has declared 43 sites in Spain as World Heritage sites, of which 13 belong to cities putting Spain in second place in the world for its large artistic heritage. A further 11 assets have been chosen as part of Intangible World Heritage.
 
Stamps dedicated to Granada
Over the last five years the Alhambra has been the most visited monument in Spain. In 2013 it received a total of 2,315,017 visitors. Its value as a testimony to Spain’s history is unrivalled if we consider the wonderful gardens of the Generalife and the Palace of Charles V. The Red Fort, symbol of the Nasrid Kingdom (1238-1492), has been the emblem of Granada for almost 800 years and was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
Over the course of its history, CORREOS has issued around 70 stamps about Granada and its famous sons and daughters. These include stamps showing the Fountain of the Lions in the Alhambra (1931 and 1950); landscapes and monuments of the Alhambra (1966 and 1975); the Alhambra and Generalife (1991); the Alhambra of Granada Architecture Prize (1998); the Court of the Water-Channel and the Generalife Palace (2001), a capital from the Fountain of the Lions (Exfilna 2003); the Alhambra World Heritage site  (2011); and the coat of arms of the city and its regional costume (1963). Other monuments in the city and the province have also appeared on stamps including the aqueduct in Almuñecar, the Palace of Charles V, the Cartuja monastery and the Palace of the Myrtles.
CORREOS has also issued stamps about historic figures who were born in the city. These include Granada’s best known son Federico García Lorca, the heroine Mariana Pineda, Cardinal Belluga, the conquistadors Álvaro de Bazán and Antonio de Mendoza, the painter Alonso Cano, the writer Angel Ganivet, the poet Luis Rosales and in more recent times the late singer, Carlos Cano.
Finally a more miscellaneous range of subjects includes events such as the Skiing World Cup held in Sierra Nevada in 1977, the Granada Festival of Music and Dance in 1988; the world Philately Exhibitions Granada 92 and Juvenia 2011, plus other stamps commemorating the lighthouse in Castell de Ferro and the Castle of Calahorra. All of these have disseminated the beauty, the culture and the attractive image of one of the most important cities in Spain; a window on the world which shows the two most important aspects of our Brand Spain: modernity and tradition.