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This 12-day, exclusive-to-Cornell study tour explores the history, culture, and landscapes of Spain's iconic cities including Madrid, Toledo, Granada, and Seville.

Drawing from his research, writings, and life experiences, Professor Craib will share lectures designed specifically for CAU. As you travel, enjoy unparalleled access to Craib's expertise through informal conversations, a walk through his favorite sections of Madrid, and the opportunity to follow your curiosity and develop your knowledge in real time.

With visits to the Prado Museum, Toldeo's old quarter, the Alhambra, and more, connect your inner map of imagination with your outer map of experience.

Fresh fish and cold beer. Lush gardens and overflowing fountains. The flourish of a flamenco dancer's hand gesture. Enjoy free time to explore each city at your will while also bonding with your fellow travelers over shared experiences, building memories that will continue to unfold even after you return home.

Raymond Craib is the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and a celebrated CAU faculty member who previously led a CAU study tour on politics, poetry, and wine throughout Chile and Argentina. Craib received rave reviews from CAU Summer 2023 students for his class "Chile, the Pacific, and the World." Specializing in Latin American history, Craib has teaching experience and long-standing research interests in the history of Spain, and previously taught for the Cornell Abroad Sevilla program. A former long-term resident of Madrid, Craib has published widely and is the author of Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes (2004); The Cry of the Renegade: Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile (2016); and, most recently, Adventure Capitalism: A History of Libertarian Exit from the Era of Decolonization to the Digital Age (2022).

Learn about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Franco sought to make Madrid the centerpiece of his vision for a conservative Spain, but after his death the city became the center of a cultural revolution (‘la movida madrileña’) in the 1980s and gradually grew to become one of the largest metropolitan areas in the EU.

Prior to our visit to the historic city center, learn how this frontier outpost, bracketed by the mountains of the north and the plains and lowlands of the south, become the seat of royal authority in Spain. Populated by freed and militarized serfs, and later spurred by the wealth of the Indies, Madrid became the heart of an empire that spanned much of the globe and lasted some 300 years. We will discuss Madrid’s rise to prominence alongside the emergence of Spain’s Golden Age and the varied influences that can be discerned in the city’s art and architecture.

Learn about Granada’s special place in Spain’s history. Retrospectively cast as the final act in the “reconquest” of the peninsula, the capture of Granada in 1492 by the Catholic forces of Isabel and Ferdinand would bring an end to the religious coexistence among Muslims, Jews, and Christians that had characterized the peninsula. After visiting the Alhambra learn more about how it inspired writers—such as Washington Irving (of Tales of Sleepy Hollow fame)—to create a romantic image of al-Andalus.

The capture of Granada occurred simultaneously with the first voyage of Columbus and his encounter with the Americas. It is Sevilla, more than any other city, that sat at the intersection of the peninsula and the Americas and Asia. Spain’s only river-port, Sevilla quickly became the seat of the powerful Crown agencies—populated by bureaucrats, nobles, and mapmakers—that oversaw and protected trade with the Indies. Learn about the connections between Iberia and the Americas and Asia through the lens of Sevilla and its Archive of the Indies, one of the great archives of the world.

April 3 - 14, 2024
To reserve your space, contact CAU partner, Royal Adventures
Phone: 800-453-4754  |  Email: info@royaladventures.com
Register online

May 30 - June 7, 2024
Orbridge 866-639-0079
Exclusive to Cornell. (Does not feature faculty.)