Anniversary: The Fall of Granada — January 2, 1492

On 2 January 1492 Boabdil, the last Nasrid sultan, handed over Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Catholic Monarchs entered the Alhambra. The capitulations had been signed weeks before, in November 1491; the ceremony of that January morning made them real, closing almost eight centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia. The Alhambra passed to the Crown intact — which is why the finest medieval Islamic palace complex in Europe still stands on its hill.