Fernwayer Announces Exclusive Granada Experiences in Partnership with the Legendary Fajalauza Foundation

Fernwayer launches a new series of experiences in partnership with Granada’s Fajalauza Foundation, guardians of one of Spain’s oldest ceramic traditions.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 31, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Fernwayer, the curated travel experiences platform for culturally curious travelers, has launched a new series of private heritage experiences in partnership with Granada’s legendary Fajalauza Foundation — guardians of one of Spain’s oldest living ceramic traditions. While the Alhambra may be the reason travelers come to Granada, Fernwayer offers an afternoon detour into one of the city’s most important living heritage sites, where preservation, craft, and cultural memory are still actively sustained.

Fajalauza has shaped Granada’s artistic identity since 1517. For over five centuries, the Morales family has preserved and practiced this tradition, crafting hand-painted, tin-glazed earthenware in luminous whites, deep blues, and moss greens. The site’s origins lie just beyond the Albaicín gate, drawing on clay from the Beiro River and fueled by wood-fired kilns lit with native rosemary and scorpion broom. These are methods unchanged since the Mozarabic period. Its distinctive motifs, rooted in Islamic, Iberian, and Andalusian aesthetics, have adorned courtyards, homes, and palaces across Spain, including the Alhambra itself.

Today, the Fajalauza Foundation operates as both a nonprofit and a working atelier. Its mission is as much about protection as production: conserving ancient kilns, safeguarding pigment archives, and reviving endangered techniques for future generations. The Foundation was established to carry forward the vision of Cecilio Morales Moreno, who for decades kept the craft alive against the odds. As commercial viability declined, Cecilio continued to train artisans, maintain the site, and fight for recognition of its cultural value, a mission that continues today under the leadership of Chemi Márquez Morales, creative director of Fundación Fajalauza.

“It’s not just about ceramics,” says Chemi. “The Foundation is preserving a living language of design, a shared memory. These ovens are nearly 300 years old. These patterns speak of centuries of coexistence, conflict, beauty, and survival. These experiences in collaboration with Fernwayer are part of how we preserve Fajalauza. Every guest helps sustain the workshop, the artisans, and the knowledge that lives here. By opening our doors, we’re not only sharing history — we’re making its survival possible. The proceeds support restoration, apprenticeships, and the long-term future of this tradition.”

Fajalauza is a rare example of unbroken lineage in Spanish craft, where visual motifs like heraldic eagles and grenadine sprigs still echo through the work, just as they did when original Fajalauza tiles were used in the Alhambra’s Patio de los Arrayanes.

Fernwayer’s three new private experiences in collaboration with Fajalauza are available exclusively on its platform, and invite travelers into this world with rare access:

The Ceramic Record of Granada is a guided immersive storytelling visit through the Fajalauza site — where travelers walk among centuries-old kilns, hear family stories, and see archival patterns and pigments that rarely leave the workshop walls.

Alhambra’s Designs Come Alive connects design with history. Guests explore how Islamic and Renaissance motifs fused into the distinct style now known as Fajalauza. In a private painting session, they create their own tile using traditional patterns and techniques.

A Baptism of Clay offers a hands-on immersion: travelers shape their own vessel on the potter’s wheel under the guidance of a master artisan. The piece is glazed, fired, and available for pickup or international shipment.

Each of these experiences is guided by members of Fundación Fajalauza and offers a behind-the-scenes perspective into spaces rarely opened to the public. Tapas and local drinks close each visit, and all bookings - offered for private groups of 2–6 guests - must be made at least 15 days in advance.

“Granada is a city shaped by many hands and voices,” says Vinitaa Jayson, Fernwayer’s co-founder. “Fajalauza represents that layering — Islamic, Iberian, Andalusian — and the act of preservation itself becomes part of the story. We’re proud to support the Foundation and open this extraordinary opportunity to travelers in a way that sustains and honors its future. This partnership reflects Fernwayer’s mission: to connect travelers with living traditions and support the people working to preserve them.”

ELSEWHERE IN GRANADA: THE ALHAMBRA IN ALL ITS GLORY

Fernwayer also offers travelers unique experiences through which they are able to explore Granada’s legendary Alhambra.

Enchantment at the Alhambra is an after-hours tour through the palace’s most storied spaces. The evening begins with an intimate dinner overlooking the complex. From there, guests follow an illuminated path through the Alhambra’s gardens and halls, guided by a historian and accompanied by a photographer who documents the experience. This is an understated, luxurious evening inside one of the world’s most legendary monuments.

The Alhambra in Five Senses offers a daytime alternative grounded in sensory discovery. Led by a historian, this walking experience reveals how the citadel’s architecture, waterworks, and inscriptions each narrate a chapter of Al-Andalus. The route is punctuated by a Nasrid-inspired lunch, a private guitar performance at one of Spain’s oldest workshops, and a visit to a perfumery rooted in the botanical knowledge of the region — each element chosen to deepen the Alhambra’s cultural resonance across centuries.

ABOUT FERNWAYER

Fernwayer is a curated travel platform that connects curious explorers with distinctive experiences rooted in place, culture and people - across the Mediterranean and Latin America including Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Croatia, Mexico and Chile. Offering an alternative to mainstream tourism, Fernwayer fosters meaningful interactions through immersive cultural engagements. Inspired by the German term “fernweh” (a longing for distant places), Fernwayer is dedicated to designing transformative journeys that benefit both visitors and the communities they encounter. Established by entrepreneurs committed to redefining travel, Fernwayer champions experiences that are deeply personal, culturally rich, and lasting.

Angelo Zinna
Fernwayer
+1 415-275-1567
communications@fernwayer.com
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