Tales of the Alhambra by an American writer of the Romantic period, Washington Irving is a collection of novellas, essays and travel notes that are dedicated to Alhambra, a famous Moorish palace in Granada. Soon after finishing a biography of Columbus (1828), Irving moved from Madrid, where he had been living, to the south of the peninsula – Granada. He was preparing a book called A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada about the years 1478–1492, and was researching the topic. He asked the then-governor of the historic Alhambra Palace as well as the archbishop of Granada for access to the palace, which was granted because of Irving's celebrity status. He explored this place with the help of a 35-year-old guide named Mateo Ximenes, and was strongly impressed. He had been staying in the most half-ruined building for three months, collecting local legends and impressions that made the basis for the book called Tales of the Alhambra.