According to areacodesexplorer, the year 1492 marks the end of the more than seven hundred year history of the Arabs in Spain and the rule of the Nasrid rulers in Granada. The outstanding architectural testimony to the Moorish era is the Alhambra, the former sultan’s palace. The externally simple walls contain the finest Islamic ornamentation, colored tiles and an artful water architecture. Right next to the Alhambra there is the Generalife, another palace of the Nasrid rises. The Arab quarter Albaicín, built on three hills, enchants with its small alleys, its whitewashed houses and its magnificent views of the Alhambra.
Granada: facts
Official title:
Old town of Granada, Alhambra and Generalife Palace
Cultural monument:
Fortress Alhambra, “the red one”, with the Alcazaba, a military fortress of the Nasrid Mohammed Ibn al-Ahmar surrounded by double wall rings, the main entrance Puerta de la Justicia, the Jardín de los Adarves (17th century), the Prince’s Palace and Cuarto Dorado (“Golden Room”), the Patio de los Arrayanes surrounded by myrtle bushes, the Patio de los Leones (14th century); the Generalife, “garden of the architect” and summer palace of the Nasrid people, and the quarter on the Albaicín hill, among others. with the Arab baths (11th century), the aristocratic palace Casa del Castril (16th century) and the Moorish Palacio de Daralhorra (15th century)
Continent:
Europe
Country:
Spain, Andalusia
Location:
Granada, on the edge of the Sierra Nevada
Appointment:
1984, expanded in 1994
Meaning:
important evidence of Moorish-Andalusian garden, fortification and urban architecture
Granada: history
1010-90
Rule of the Berber Zirids
1090
Almoravid reign
1238
Residence of Beni Nasr
13.-15. Century
Alhambra
1491
Siege by the army of the Catholic Kings
2.1.1492
Handover of the city and end of the Sultanate of Granada
1536
Puerta de las Granadas
1542
Foundation of the university
1568
Uprising in the Albaicín
1840
Extension of the audience hall, Mexuar
1890
Fire in the Sala de la Barca
1936
Burned out church of San Salvador in the Spanish Civil War
1965
Restoration of the Sala de la Barca
Borderland between the cross and the crescent
When it is really hot in August, the earth is bone-dry under the scorching sun and the grass has become as earth-brown as the Sierra Nevada, the Alhambra in front of the rugged mountain silhouette and the old town of Albaicín on the hill opposite leave no viewer untouched – »al-Hambra “, “the Red”. Completely surrounded by walls and massive towers, the powerful and seemingly impregnable fortress resembles an eagle’s nest. No Moorish building is so captivating as this one. The slopes of Mount Assabika fall perpendicular to the Río Darro. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Alcazaba military fortress, the mosque, the Comares and Los Leones palaces were built on this strategically favorable location. Where the cisterns usually dry up in summer, the fountains splash here, the trees sprout lush green.
Although the Christians had long since conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista, Granada remained the borderland between the cross and the crescent before Boabdil, the last Moorish governor, had to hand over the keys of the city to the Catholic Kings in 1492. You can feel the long Arab presence everywhere. Inconspicuous, very oriental, Granada turns all its beauty inside. Dreams reveal themselves behind bare walls. At the height of their cultural heyday, the sultans had their palaces embroidered in stone. In halls like the Sala de los Embajadores, a jungle of abstract, symbolic images emerges before the eyes of the beholder, which through repetition achieve perfect harmony. Perfect, as if the ruler had commissioned the court’s scholars to calculate the geometric ceramic ribbons mathematically. In between the name of Allah in white marble, thousands of times, and sayings from the Koran. The halls and rooms almost disappear under the lush ornaments, which have an almost sensual aura. Tile bases, stucco, horseshoe arches, doors, arched windows, domes and columns like stalactites in a grotto are combined, for example in the Patio de los Leones and the Sala de las Hermanas – everything in lightness, grace and harmony. Although only bricks, plaster and tiles were used, splendor and elegance can hardly be surpassed. for example in the Patio de los Leones and in the Sala de las Hermanas – everything in lightness, grace and harmony. Although only bricks, plaster and tiles were used, splendor and elegance can hardly be surpassed. for example in the Patio de los Leones and in the Sala de las Hermanas – everything in lightness, grace and harmony. Although only bricks, plaster and tiles were used, splendor and elegance can hardly be surpassed.
The most recent Moorish building is the Generalife Palace outside the Alhambra. In the park of the summer palace, the garden architects let their imagination run wild; with terrace gardens, fountains and gargoyles, between palm trees, fig trees, rose bushes and fragrant jasmine, it has a purely cure character.
The old town of Albaicín is a weathered dream of brick walls, horseshoe and round arches, mosaics, frescoes, columns and stars – sloping alleys and winding squares up to the banks of the Río Darro and up the hill. Modern times stopped at the narrow streets. After the victory over the Moors, the architects of the Christian kings honored the Alhambra: Alhambra meets Versailles. The Habsburg Emperor Charles V had Pedro Machuca, a pupil of Michelangelo, built a Renaissance palace that could not be a better contrast to the Alhambra. The church of Santa María was built on the site of the mosque and the monastery of San Francisco was built above the Arab prince’s palace. In addition to Arab baths and palatial villas of former Moorish rulers, one encounters handsome churches and monasteries in the maze of alleys. The cathedral in the Moorish medina is one of the most magnificent Spanish religious buildings of the Renaissance. Sculptures proliferate on the facade, the interior is characterized by the preference for overloaded decor. In the Royal Chapel, the architect Enrique de Egas paid homage to the omnipotence of the Catholic Kings and set up a bed made of Carrara marble for Isabella and Ferdinand.
