Water has always been sacred in Granada — the Nasrids engineered an elaborate system of channels and fountains to bring snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada into their palaces and gardens. This hydraulic legacy lives on in the city's decorative fountains, while contemporary street art transforms its urban walls.
The ornate Fuente de las Batallas (Fountain of Battles) on the Gran Vía de Colón is one of Granada's most elaborate 19th-century public monuments. Crowned with allegorical figures representing the Christian triumph in the Reconquista, it stands at one of the city's busiest intersections. The fountain was restored in the early 2000s and remains an important point of orientation and civic pride on the main commercial boulevard. It makes a good starting point for exploring the Gran Vía's architecture and the surrounding pedestrian shopping streets.
The northern Albayzín is home to Granada's most vibrant street art scene, concentrated around the Mirador de San Cristóbal and the streets descending toward Calle Elvira. Large-scale murals by Spanish and international artists cover gable ends and retaining walls throughout the neighbourhood, exploring themes of Moorish heritage, flamenco, immigration and social justice. The Mirador itself offers an alternative, crowd-free panorama of Granada often overlooked in favour of the more famous San Nicolás viewpoint. A self-guided street art walk here takes 1–2 hours.