The Monastery of Saint Louis is the result of the Queen Elizabeth I’s promise, who visited La Zubia on a whim. The town was still under Muslim control. During the battle between Muslims and Christians, the Queen begged Saint Louis to consider her army to be the victor. In exchange, she ordered the construction of a monastery devoted to the village’s saint. After its construction in 1500, the monastery became the most outstanding spiritual centre in Granada at that time. Nowadays, we only keep remains from a cloister, some columns and diverse elements in different vegetable gardens, and the church’s façade, where we can still appreciate the Catholic Kings’ symbols and initials and the coat of arms that Philip II used later on.
The mentioned monastery fell into ruin. After the Queen Elizabeth II’s visit, she gave the vegetable garden as a present to the archbishop of Granada, who ordered to build on its remains an Archiepiscopal Palace. The big arcade in a corner, the entrance portico where the end date is written (1884), as well as the great inner staircase are testimony to that.
Remarkable parts of the area are the promenade and the gardens, where the nineteenth-century lookout is placed. It was built on the occasion of the Queen’s visit.
Vivir y Sentir La Zubia 