This monastery is constructed on the hill of “Aynadamar”, a place greatly appreciated by the Moslems. It is covered with orchards and gardens irrigated with the water that comes from “Alfacar”. At this site the Moslems installed their country residences, where they celebrated magnificent banquets. According to “L. Mármol” the word “Aynadamar” means “Fountain of tears”, and it makes reference to the ditch, named the same way, that passes through this site, carrying the water from Alfacar to parts of the Albayzin district.

Nowadays, this site has been changed drastically by the University buildings and dwellings that have been constructed around it.

To accede to this compound we have to go through a plateresque style door way of the 16th century by “Juan García de Pradas”. It consists of a semicircular arch, with Gothic imposts, shields of Spain at the spandrels and framed by pilasters and a richly decorated cornice. On top of this cornice there is a niche with a wooden image of the Virgin from the 16th century.

Through this door we enter a great courtyard and at the rear there is a big staircase that leads us to the entrance of the church and to the actual entrance of the Monastery. Here, the element that stands out the most is a magnificent “granadino” stone-paved floor from the 16th century.

The church (16th century), has three access doors: one for the faithful and the other two were for the monks and the lays (these two doors communicated with a small cloister). One of them, is a simple neoclassical door with a semicircular arch, framed by Ionic columns and an entablature that supports a niche with an image of “St. Bruno”.

The church has one single nave divided into four sections, which are separated with different elements, for instance an altarpiece that separates the lays choir from the monks choir. The first section of the church was dedicated to the faithfuls, the next section was dedicated to the lays and then one for the monks, culminating with the presbytery.

At the nave, there are two elements that stand out from the rest: the altarpieces by “Sánchez Cotán” and the storm door with glass doors decorated with shells, silver, several woods and ivory, by “Fr. José Manuel Vázquez”.

The first of these elements, the altarpieces, are “Descanso en la Huida a Egipto” (A rest in the escape to Egypt) and “Bautismo de Cristo” (Christ’s Baptism), from the 17th century. These were the first ones that the artist did in Granada, where most of his works are, that show the transition from the Mannerist style to the Baroque.

The walls and the ceilings are richly decorated, being the plaster the material used more frequently for sculptures, niches and the arches of the canvases which show the life of the Virgin, by “P. Atanasio Bocanegra” during the second half of the 17th century. This artist, disciple of “Alonso Cano”, was a notable master of the “Granadina” School and one of the most famous painters of his time. In his works he shows seascape themes with an accentuated Baroque style that sometimes introduces the Rococo style.

Connected with the Refectory is the “Profundis” room built in 1600, where there is an altarpiece with a canvas of St. Pedro and St. Pablo, also made by “Sánchez Cotán”.

The Chapter of Lays room is the oldest part of the monastery (1517). It has a rectangular shape, covered with a cross vault (generated from pointed arches) and with a multi centered arch at the entrance. The canvases that hang on its walls were done by “Vicente Carducho” that show the life of the Carthusian monks.

On the gallery of the courtyard, next to the nave of the church, there are four chapels that house, each one of them, an “Ecce Homo” made with polychromated clay, by the “García” brothers at the end of the 16th century. There is also a sculpture of the Virgin with her child, made by “José Risueño” during the 17th and the 18th century. The “García” brothers (“Jerónimo”, “Francisco” and “Miguel”), who worked in Granada around 1600, were apparently canons from “El Salvador”. The fact that they did sculpture as a hobby and not as a profession, might explain their independence, specialization and fame achieved by their “Ecce Homo” made of terracotta. This “Ecce Homo” is a representation of Jesus Christ with a crown of spines and his hands tied together with the cord that hangs from his neck during the Passion. “J. Risueño” (another sculptor and painter) follows “Alonso Cano” in his works although with Flemish influences. The “Cristo del Consuelo” (The Christ of the Consolation, made by “Alonso Cano”) is very well known in Granada, and can be admired at the Sacromonte Abbey.