Capilla Real – Isabella & Ferdinand

The Royal Chapel of Granada was constructed between 1505 and 1517 and it is the burial place of the Catholic monarchs; Isabella of Castile I and Ferdinand II of Aragon. On September 13, 1504, they declared that they wanted their remains to be taken to Granada, and to this effect a royal charter was issued at Medina del Campo, Castile-León, for the Royal Chapel to be built. Isabella was initially buried in the Alhambra palace in the Monastery of San Francisco, in what is now a Parador, on 18th December 1504 and was joined there by Ferdinand on 10th November 1521. However the Emperor Charles ordered that the bodies of his grandparents be removed to the Capilla Real in 1521. There are elegant tombs to the Monarchs and their daughter Joanna ‘the mad’ of Castile and her husband Philip ‘the handsome’ but the beauty and simplicity is beneath these in the crypt with the five lead coffins containing the remains of the kings and queens and the little Infante, each recognizable by the initials of their names.