The Carmen de la Victoria is located in an area where cármenes have existed since the Arabs inhabited Granada. Since the end of the 19th century, it has been composed of the former Carmen Olivarillo and Carmen Percal, placed at both sides of the Arab Wall in Cuesta del Chapiz.

• Carmen, from the Arabic word Karm (“grapevine”), is the name traditionally given in Granada to the private pleasure gardens located in the surroundings of the city.

The Carmen de la Victoria became a property of the University of Granada in 1945.

The cármenes are traditional properties located in the historic quarters of Granada, which resemble to the pleasure gardens that the Arabs who inhabited Granada owned in the surroundings of the city. Nowadays they have become simple private gardens whose owners can still enjoy the feeling of being peacefully away from the disturbing city.

The Carmen de la Victoria is located in the Albayzín Hill, in the Arab quarter Axaris, which has been full of orchards, gardens and cármenes since the Arabs inhabited Granada.

The Carmen de la Victoria has had the same appearance for a whole century. The last modification was the demolition of Victoria Abbey in the last century and, long before, the merge of the former Carmen de la Victoria-Huerto del Olivarillo and the Carmen del Pencal, located at both sides of the Arab Wall in Cuesta del Chapiz. The mark of the wall is still visible in the current carmen. A few houses and street areas were added to the carmenes lands, becoming today step-like gardens that surround the current building.

This carmen is, since it became a property of the University of Granada, the only public carmen of the city which has not lost its house-garden function. At the beginning, it was a student accommodation especially intended for Moroccan students (Casa de Marruecos - Morocco House) linked to the Escuela de Estudios Árabes (Arab Studies School). Afterwards, it became a Colegio Mayor (a especial kind of student accommodation), and it is nowadays a **Guest Accommodation* available for all University members.

Although the buildings located at the carmen have varied, the gardens have remained the same for over a century. It is, therefore, one of the less modified cármenes in Granada, since the regional gardening style of the 19th century still remains.