After the Christian Reconquest of Spain, especially in Granada in 1492, despite the Treaty of Granada, signed by Isabella & Ferdinand, religious intolerance followed. The treaty provided religious freedom to Muslims. However just 8 years later Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros led aggressive campaigns of forced conversion in Granada. He burned Arabic texts, closed schools, and persecuted Islamic scholars-actions that sparked the Granada Rebellion of 1499–1501, after which the Spanish Crown, under Ferdinand and Isabella, revoked the treaty’s protections and, by 1502, issued an edict requiring all adult Muslims in Castile, including Granada, to convert or leave.
Spain thus saw the forced conversion or expulsion of Muslims (Moors), Jews, and later, pressure on Roma (Gypsies) who came to Spain the 15th century. The gypsies i spoke to said they had come from India.
These groups were often denied land ownership, pushed outside city walls, and excluded from mainstream housing.
With no legal rights to property, and often targeted by the Inquisition, these marginalized communities took to the outskirts of Granada. The Romas started building their homes by digging into the soft, uninhabited, steep hillsides of Sacromonte, beyond the reach of church and city authorities.
This hillside is still inhabited by the Romas though now most live in concrete homes
Some of the cave homes were made into a museum~Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte.
A very steep climb up but I managed it on a very hot afternoon.
Nine caves have been transformed into museums whoch showcase their lifestyles.
Interestingly, flamenco also originated here
with the “zambra”, a passionate Andalusian/Roma dance that evolved from Moorish traditions. Zambra were held in these cave homes and were historically suppressed by the Inquisition before being revived in modern times.
Note : Golden Age of Tolerance (Especially 8th–10th Century)
Under rulers like the Umayyads of Córdoba (particularly Abd al-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II), religious and cultural tolerance flourished.
Iin general too the Moors—Muslims who ruled large parts of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492-practiced a degree of religious tolerance. Jews held important administrative positions.
