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In 1826 Washington Irving went to Spain during a seventeen year visit to Europe. It always was his habit to write about his experiences and to reflect on them in comparison to his home country. But when he found himself across the Pyrenees, for the first time, he lost himself in a country Surrounded by all this beauty, Irving recreated the strangest, most gifted, most unreal monarchy that ever reared its fabric for a time in Europe. Irving´s Tales from the Alhambra were born.

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