The Cedars of Carmen de la Victoria

Two Atlas cedars rise well above the great white perimeter wall of Carmen de la Victoria, tall enough to be one of the first things a visitor sees climbing the Cuesta del Chapiz toward the Albaicin, long before the garden gate itself comes into view. The carmen, a traditional Granada house-and-garden type built around a walled orchard, dates its oldest section, the cypress walk, to well before the University of Granada bought the property in 1944 to use as a student residence and guest house, one of the few carmenes in the neighbourhood that remained in some form of institutional rather than private ownership. Alongside the cedars grow equally old cypresses left deliberately unpruned, and a Judas tree (arbol del amor) now so aged it needs a support post to keep standing, the whole ensemble reading as a garden that has been allowed to grow rather than one kept formally trimmed. Entry is free, but the university requires visitors to book an appointment in advance, one of the few remaining Albaicin carmenes still open to the public at all.