Tales of the Alhambra Tales of the Alhambra Tales of the Alhambra is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Shortly after completing a biography of Christopher Columbus in 1828, Washington Irving travelled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." Irving was preparing a book called "A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada", a history of the years 1478–1492, and was continuing his research on the topic. He immediately asked the then-governor
Tales of the Alhambra inspired Vladimir Belsky's libretto for the opera "The Golden Cockerel" by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. The book serves as the basis of the 1950 Spanish film "Tales of the Alhambra". Villa Zorayda, a museum in St. Augustine, Florida based on a wing of the Alhambra, takes its name from a character in Irving's book (specifically from "Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses"). The city of Alhambra, California is named after the book. In 1874, the daughter of Benjamin Wilson was reading the book and encouraged him to use the name for his new Los Angeles suburban development. In 2017, Spanish animation producer