The Alhambra of Granada information - Granada tourism - Andalucia, Spain

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Granada Information: THE ALHAMBRA

The Alhambra is a palace, a fortress and one of the various commanding parts of the Granada landscape, with its red geometry between Sierra Nevada and the plains of the Vega.
The constructions are of an impressive strength, plain on the outside and with a startling amount of decoration on the inside. Stone, brick and wood were used as materials, which the builders utilised to create veritable works of art. Work on the fortress began in the ninth century, and continued up to the time of Charles V (sixteenth century); the best and most prolific work dates from the Nasrid sultanate (1232-1492). Having taken the Gomerez slope, the woods are entered through the sixteenth-century Puerta de las Granadas. From the same period is the Charles V fountain, with three spouts, alluding to the three rivers of Granada (Genil, Darro and Beiro), and with an interesting design. The palaces are entered through the Puerta de la Justicia.

The imposing tower has two entrance arches placed in a dog leg. After the Plaza de los Aljibes (fountains for drawing water, dating from the late fifteenth century) is the Alcazaba, an ancient fortification to which references exist from the ninth century and which was enlarged four centuries later. The most popular tower in the Alcazaba is the Torre de la Vela. The tower's bell, so closely linked to the traditions of Granada, still dictates irrigation times for the surrounding plains. The thirteenth-century Torre del Homenaje has six storeys, some of which are vaulted; the lowest is the keep. The Puerta del Vino, near the Alcazaba, was once joined to the walls. It dates from the fourteenth century and has two facades; outside the stone and solidity of its design are set off elegantly by the window, and the interior, renovated by Muhammad V (1354-1359 and 1362-1391) is decorated using plasterwork, brick, and blue and white tiling.

The Alcazar or Casa Real (Royal House) has three main part: the Mexuar, used for legal purposes; the Cuarto de Comares room, the official residence; and the Cuarto de Leones, which was "the main palatial nucleus of the Alhambra during the reign of Muhammad V" (cuarto is an old Castilian term meaning a set of rooms). It is no coincidence that one courtyard groups together the rooms of each of these cuartos. This arrangement does not correspond to the Nasrid Alhambra, but rather to reforms made in the sixteenth century. The Mexuar or Viziers' council room has undergone major reform work. Palacio de Comares. The Mexuar leads to the front of the Patio del Cuarto Dorado, one of the most important works of art in Granada, produced by the sultan Muhammad V as a monumental entrance gate for the whole of the Alhambra, the position of which was later changed.

Following on from a narrow passageway is the Patio de Los Arrayanes. The pool is flanked by two hedges of arrayan or myrtle, measuring an impressive 34 by 7.5 metres.
Before the large Torre de Comares comes the Sala de la Barca, the original vault of which was destroyed in a fire. Close by is the Salon del Trono, the largest enclosed space in the fortress, a square measuring 11.3 metres on each side and 18.2 metres high. The Torre de Comares, measuring an impressive 45 metres in height, is the highest in the Alhambra and as imposing as the Torre de la Vela. Despite its size, the Salon del Trono manages to retain a sense of intimacy. It is decorated with tiling and plasterwork, and has a wooden ceiling, made up of a square central piece and stalactite vaulting, with the four gables leading down in three staggered levels. From the central square, seven circles descend with eight- and sixteenpointed stars, alluding to the seven superimposed heavens of Islamic theology. The Patio de Los Leones.

The four sides of the courtyard are surrounded by a gallery of arches. On the shorter sides, pavilions jut out into the courtyard towards the central fountain. The courtyard's former garden has since been lost. The columns of the galleries, standing alone or in groups of two or three, create subtle rhythms and architectural depth. The stylisation accentuates the sense of verticality, which lessens as the shaft comes to an end. In the open rooms that open out on to the courtyard, light is very much the protagonist; the Nasrid sensibility skilfully combines the light that enters through the doors and that which comes down from the stellar drum vaults. The trickle of water can be heard from the central fountain and from the smaller fountains found in the private rooms. The Fuente de Los Leones, with twelve sides and a lion on each, stands in the centre of the courtyard. The lions were reused from a tenth- or eleventh-century building.

The marble bowl, from the Nasrid period and decorated with a poem by ibn Zamrac, explains the symbolism of fountains and water. Other parts of the palace are decorated with verses by the same poet. On the west side, the Sala de los Mocarabes, which acts as an anteroom, has a Baroque plaster vault, as the original was damaged. Opposite is the Sala de los Reyes or Room of the Kings, named after the ten figures that decorate the vault and who are thought to be the first ten Nasrid sultans. The paintings are not Arab but Christian, dating from the early fifteenth century. The longer sides lead off to the Sala de los Abencerrajes and the Sala de las Dos Hermanas. The first of these rooms, named in honour of the legendary Nasrid soldiers, is covered by a stalactite vault on a stellar drum. The Sal a de las Dos Hermanas, which owes its name to the two large marble paving slabs, has a square central area, used as a mexuar, covered by a stalactite cupola on an octagonal drum, flanked by three side rooms.

The most spectacular are the Mirador de Daraxa, as a throne room, and, previously, the Sala de los Ajimeces. The stalactite vaults, the play of light and water, the calligraphy of the poetic Arab texts and the geometric rhythms of the decoration repeat, with certain variations, the main features of Nasrid art. Between the Patio de los Leones and the Patio de la Alberca, though at a much lower level, are the baths, with the Sala de las Camas or room of beds, which has been somewhat capriciously restored, and the baths themselves, similar to the Arab baths found in the West, featuring plinths with well conserved original material.

Within the Alhambra, though outside the palace area, is the Portico del Partal, the former palace of Muhammad II (1303-1309), preceded by a pool. Five arches (a number that is repeated throughout the Alhambra) now resting on columns and a tower are the main elements. The lions prior to the pool belonged to Maristan, a mental sanatorium built in the Albaicfn that did not survive beyond the nineteenth century. The Mezquita del Partal (the palace's only mosque) is small but skilfully divided into three levels.