Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Granada diary: La Alhambra
We spent the better part of the day at La Alhambra, which is the huge palace complex and fortification built on the hill overlooking Granada. La Alhambra was the seat of the last Muslim government in Spain following the fall of Cordoba and other points west to the Christians. Along with Granada, the kingdom it ruled, La Alhambra remained as the last outpost of Islam on the Iberian peninsula until Queen Isabella finally defeated the Moors in 1492. The Christian rulers, including both Isabella and her husband Ferdinand and their even more powerful grandson, Charles V, admired the Muslim architecture and determined to preserve it even as they superimposed Christian government. Charles eventually ordered up an addition to the Muslim palace, bolting on his own Renaissance home. Here is the complex from a distance, with the blocky palace of Charles V and the rounded windows of the Islamic style equally in evidence:
The complex was built up in bits over time. At its entrance there is this handy map, which shows the Islamic construction in red and the Christian in orange.
When all is said and done, I much prefer the Islamic style, with its graceful courtyards and fountains, to the clunkier Renaissance design. Here are several vantage points, both of the main palace and the emir's "retreat," a smaller building a few minutes walk away, concealed behind a vast garden and shielded from the noise and demands of the court.
The Christian tower over the Muslim palace:
Granada, as it appears from the palace.
The ceilings are astonishing, even with the color washed away. Take a look at this detail:
The fountains and other water systems were especially impressive. They are all drive by a vast network of acquaducts which channel water from the mountains. These acquaducts, which have been operating for 700 years, not only supply all the water for La Alhambra, but until the 1950s actually provided the irrigation for the agriculture in the valley. Even now, both the fountains and the irrigation for La Alhambra's many gardens are driven entirely by gravity through these channels built seven centuries ago.
Pictures from elsewhere in Granada -- the cathedral, the gypsy quarter, and so forth -- will be forthcoming tomorrow after we get to Seville.
1 Comments:
By 
Mike, at
Tue Oct 07, 09:11:00 PM:
The most beautiful palace in Europe (if you just ignore Charles' pile in the middle).
Especially going past the many dry wastelands in Spain (or Africa), this watery Xanadu must have been unimaginably sweet. I can (ever-so-slightly) sympathize with the Arabs who wish they had it back.
How can a culture that built this singular palace sink into death worship and depravity?
