The Royal Convent of Saint Isabel

This guide to the Royal Convent of Saint Isabel in Granada follows a cloistered Franciscan community that the crown could never keep within its own limits, from Queen Isabella's failed plan to build it inside the Alhambra to its move into the Nasrid palace Dar al-Horra. It traces a century of overcrowding, collapsing rooms, missing rents and a flood of refugee nuns after Napoleon's troops occupied the city. Look up at the carved Mudejar ceiling overhead, not a single nail holding its interlaced woodwork together.