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Tales From the Alhambra

January 31, 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

Washington Irving stole the title of this piece from me. But I bear him no grudge and even recommend his book of the same name. His work tells his tale, mine tells of a much more humble one-day visit.

The Alhambra is about a half-mile long (700m) by less than 200 yards at it's widest and sits on a hill overlooking Granada. At the forward end is a citadel or Alcazaba that was first built by the Moors in the 9th Century but it was probably the site of a Roman fort before that. Above that level are the Moorish princely palaces from the 12 through the 14th Centuries along with later buildings added by the Christian conquerors. Today, there are mostly gardens above that, but in times past, this was the area of a city-within-a-city. At the top of the hill, outside the walls of the Alhambra, are the gardens and buildings that originally served as summer palaces for the Moorish and Christian rulers, an area called "Generalife".

All the guidebooks caution that a full day must be used, but our experience was that even twice that much time could be easily spent. For our wintertime visit, the gardens were mostly dormant and not worth visiting. There is a limit of 8,000 tourists per day at Alhambra, 400 per half-hour at the palaces and guides are filled with warnings about daylong waits for tickets. Not in February because we had our choice of tour times and, while there were plenty of people strolling, it was not crowded on our beautiful sunny day.

Our visit started with an early morning bus ride to the path to the main entrance gate, the Justice Gate. The gate is an authentic Moorish defensive gate with passage requiring two sharp turns. As we walked unchallenged through the labyrinth, we still looked up nervously to the windows and roof slots where spears could be thrown and boiling oil and molten lead could be poured.

Having successfully negotiated the main gate, we headed for the Alcazaba, the serious end of this defensework. Originally, this area had been separated by a gully from the upper city, but the Christians filled it in so it was an easy walk across a square and around to another twisted gate into the citadel itself. Inside, the area contained foundations for what had originally been military housing. There were also steps leading down to the caves below that had held supplies or prisoners. My impression was that while soldiers had little comfort, prisoners would have looked up through roof grates with envy.

Across the interior grounds, we climbed inside yet another tower, called the Watch Tower, to the top of the forward wall. The view over Granada was spectacular. It was easy to see why the rulers from even before the Romans would have wanted this location.

Down and out from the Watch Tower, we passed though a hole in the wall to the rampart on the outside. All the main walls of the Alcazaba and the Alhambra overall had shielded ramparts which allowed sentries to make their rounds on horseback. Today, many of these areas are just small parks, but the original serious function seems always present.

We came back into the Alhambra and walked through the ceremonial gate called the Vine (Wine?) Gate. This was originally the passage to the city that surrounded the royal palaces. Today, it served us as the passage to a church and palace built by the Christians on top of the foundations of the original mosques of Alhambra. The church was relatively small, almost easy to miss. Inside, it seemed to still be a functioning parish church, but I suppose only ghosts live at Alhambra now.

The palace however, commissioned by Carlos V in the early 16th Century, was not small. In fact it was a huge block of a building who's only redeeming architectural feature was an austere circular courtyard. Carlos died before the building was finished and indeed the roof was not completed until 1960. Today it houses two museums. The first depicts the ancient history of the area with what seems to be a standard selection of Roman and pre-Roman statues, coins, pottery shards and looted burial markers. Nice but not unique. The other museum in the Carlos V building holds part of the royal art collection from the times of the earliest Christian rulers of Granada. Again, nice but not unique.

By now, we were approaching our 2:00pm appointment with the Moorish or Nasrid Palaces. These palaces would indeed prove to be unique.

The first of them, called the Mexuar Palace, held a garden, a small courtyard, and a central hall. The hall had originally served as the meeting room of the Moorish royal court of justice. The elegant ceiling panels and the wall tiles are among the oldest parts of the Alhambra. There have been dozens of reconstruction efforts at the Alhambra over the last 1,000 years, but this room still carried the solemnity appropriate to a court of justice.

From this hall, we passed through an inner courtyard across to the ornate entry of the second of three Nasrid Palaces, the Comares Palace. This palace had been the center of official business, the palace where foreign dignitaries went to conduct their business. The reflecting pool was a perfect mirror for the buildings on either end. All our tour people with cameras had to take turns snapping the same shots. I wonder if the 12th Century foreign dignitaries did the same?

Throughout the Nasrid Palaces, there are parts of the original wall decoration. The tilework (called "alicatado tile") was intricate with repeated patterns made, not with painting on square tiles, but with intricate interlocking tiles of different shapes and colors. Reportedly, the tiles of the Alhambra inspired Escher's fanciful drawings. The carving on the walls was even more ornate. I suppose the original purpose was to impress the visitor with the wealth and power of the owner and it still serves in that way.

Off the reflecting pool courtyard, past a grandly decorated outer room, was the Hall of Ambassadors where the Moorish royalty conducted formal meetings with foreigners. The ceiling was a complex star of windows and carvings that reportedly served to vent the hot air in summer. That must have been when the foreign dignitaries met. On our tour, the primary sources of hot air were the tour guides, each extolling the self-evident beauty of the palace. We are happier having used our memories, our pictures and, we admit, an illustrated guidebook.

The final palace is the Leones or Lion Palace. This was originally the personal palace of the royal ruler. It was a bit less formal but as well designed as any of the rest of the palace complex. In winter, the low sun could reach under the overhanging eves that in summer provided shade. The location of shadows on the pillars was also known to have been a time marker for the residents. Now, the shadows are just the subject for painters and photographers.

Off the courtyard is the Hall of Kings. The pattern of columns is similar to the pattern of Benedictine cloisters of that period and reportedly came about because the 14th Century builder of this courtyard, Mohammed V, had been in temporary exile at the court of a friendly Castillian king. On his return, he introduced the style element to his own addition to the Nasrid palaces. This is another illustration that, in Spain, the Moorish heritage worked in both directions.

Our tour now descended below the royal level to the level of the baths. Here, the Moors used old Roman designs for elaborate bathing facilities with cold rooms, steam sauna rooms, and warm pools. The story goes that as a practical matter, these were the rooms where foreign and domestic business was really conducted with the royalty. I'm sure our Russian and Ukrainian friends will understand.

We exited the palace area via an open portico and yet another reflecting pond. The tower of the building called the Partal is all that remains of an early 14thCentury Palace that predated the other Nasrid palaces. The area also has what little remains of early Moorish homes, including the foundation for and one of seven royal homes of the Nasrid Princes.

Today, there are gardens in this part of the Alhambra where originally houses stood. During our winter visit, the gardens were nice but not spectacular. It had also been almost eight hours since we first entered Alhambra and we were running low on the energy necessary to appreciate everything.

Our last grasp at being the proper tourist was to look up the hill toward the area called "Generalife". This had originally been a summer retreat from the rigors of public life at the Alhambra. I was almost thankful that we could see it was not worth a winter visit because the gardens were dormant. In fact, what we really wanted was to be dormant ourselves, so we found our way to the bus and took the twisting journey down the hill and headed home.

The Alhambra was as good as it's billing. It gave us a feeling of a millennium or more of Spanish history. By itself, it might be worth a trip to Spain, but a visit here comes with all the rest of Granada too. But that's another story.

Regards and stay healthy. You may have to climb around the Alhambra for eight hours.

John and Marianne