The Twin Cypresses of the Parador

Two centenarian cypresses flank what was once the entrance to a set of royal tombs, inside a garden that has spent the last five centuries as a Franciscan convent, then a hotel. The Parador de Granada occupies the former Convento de San Francisco, built in the 15th century within the Alhambra's own walls, on ground the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella briefly chose as their own burial place before their remains moved to the Royal Chapel in the city below. The garden that grew up around the convent later became a botanical showcase laid out with identifying labels for each species, mixing Mediterranean natives, lavender, thyme, rosemary, with the pines, figs and cypresses planted for height and structure, these two flanking the site's most historically loaded doorway. The Parador remains a working hotel, and its garden sits technically on private grounds, but the café and restaurant terrace opens directly onto it, meaning any visitor willing to buy a coffee can walk the same paths past the same trees that once shaded a monarch's intended tomb.