Palace of Charles V

This guide to the Palace of Charles V in Granada opens with a bishop's blunt accusation, spoken over the ruins of the Nasrid apartments and royal baths torn down to make room for it. You'll hear how Emperor Charles the Fifth ordered a Renaissance palace built inside the Alhambra in 1527, and how architect Pedro Machuca, trained in Rome, wrapped a perfect circular courtyard inside a square building unlike anything Europe had tried. The guide follows the project through Machuca's death, his son's continuation, and a mountain rebellion that shut the site down for fifteen years.