SACROMONTE :
“Sacred mount”
Sacromonte is a neighborhood in Granada, Spain, it derives its name from the nearby “Sacromonte Abbey”, which was founded in 1600 on the hill of Valparaiso outside the old city, and is built over catacombs (originally mine workings of Roman date).
The slopes of the hill form the traditional gitano quarter of the city, by the 19th century, this area had become home to a substantial Gitano community, who built their homes in caves excavated from the soft rock of the hillside, the area became famous for flamenco music and dancing, but major floods and forced evacuations in the 1960’s left the neighborhood dramatically reduced.
Since the 1990’s, the area has slowly become developed as a tourist attraction, and as a center of the Gitano culture.
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