The Alhambra Palace

The Alhambra is one of the most enchanting, fascinating and beautiful places to visit. One can go many times and be completely entertained and enthralled each time. One tip to enhance enjoyment is to hire a guide, audio or otherwise, which give excellent additional information.

On the way to the Nasrid Palace, one has to pass under the very impressive wine gate, a very large structure with Moorish architecture. It has a double façade of horseshoe arches. Apparently this gate inspired Debussy to write the “La Porte du Vin” music, although Debussy never visited Spain.

The Nasrid Palace

There is a very large patio before one enters the Mexuar, which was used as the reception salon and for the administration of justice. Everywhere one can see the elaborate tile work at the bottom of the walls, followed by the elaborate stucco work on the walls and the beehive stucco ceilings. On the walls are ornamental pious prayers in Arabic script. The arches above columns have stalactites. There are windows where one can see the gardens below the palace or one can see the city of Granada. Everywhere there are beautiful vistas.

There is also the Court of the Myrtles with its huge courtyard and pool. The tower of Comares is in the background and reflects in the pool. The Court of the Lions is huge and impressive. The original lion statues will be placed in the nearby Museo de Bellas Artes in the Carlos V Palace to preserve them, because they have suffered erosion through the years, being exposed to the rain in the open patio. Copies of the lion statues will be put in this court.

Another beautiful place are the gardens of the Partal, adjacent to the Torre de las Damas. There is a large reflecting pool adjacent to this structure. This building has beautiful arches over columns and inside, one has beautiful views of the city below. It is interesting to note that in all these gardens adjacent to the palace, there are many beautiful cats that are not scared of the crowds of people.

The Carlos V Palace

After the Nasrid Palace, onecan visit the Carlos V Palace. It is a Renaissance building with a huge round patio in the middle, surrounded by two stories of galleries, ringed with columns. This building was constructed by the King Carlos V and it really was a mistake to construct it on the grounds of the Alhambra. However it is too late and the building is here for keeps. Inside is the Museo de Bellas Artes of the city, but it is closed on Mondays, so if one wants to see it, it is better to go on any day except Monday.

The Generalife Gardens

The Generalife Gardens are huge and one can enjoy walking through them. At the entrance, there is a large open air patio that is sloping to a stage, where concerts and other public performances are held. Everywhere in the gardens there are little fountains that splash water. The sound of running water was very soothing to the Moors and they engineered a system to bring large amounts of water from the surrounding mountains to the Alhambra fortress, so that they could withstand sieges and also use the water in the palaces and gardens. The gardens are surrounded by a forest of trees, and one can see the channels where the water runs.

The gardens are very well tended by professional gardeners and one can see them at work while one wanders through the gardens. There are many rose plants and other aromatic plants and shrubs because the Moors liked to have perfumed gardens, which are a delight to the senses. Many of one's senses are engaged in these beautiful gardens, the sense of sight, smell, and hearing. What is interesting is that the gardens are divided into smaller gardens by huge green hedges, which have cutouts so that one can see adjacent gardens. One needs at least an hour to see all of these gardens in the Generalife. One can spend much more time here taking pictures of everything.

One can really appreciate what the Moors built here. The designs are all to human scale and there is pure genius in the designs. The human scale is probably what makes the palaces so beautiful and engaging. One can imagine how life would be if one lived in these palaces.

The Stone Lions of the Alhambra Palace

The Alhambra Palace has the Fountain of the Lions, which is now being restored. There were 12 lions that surrounded the fountain and the water would spew out of the mouths of the stone lions. The lions were removed and are in restoration and are being studied. Copies will be made of the lions and placed around the fountain, while the original lions will be placed in the Alhambra Museum.

The scholars studying the stone lions now know that they were sculpted between 1362 and 1391 during the reign of Muhamad V. The king ordered one sculpture built by an artist, and this was probably the biggest lion, because it has the most detailing. The other lions were built by other artists, trying to copy this lion, but all of the lions are different in details from each other. They were all made of marble from Macael. They were restored in the 17th century by Alonso de Mena. It is known that the lions were polychromed before that restoration.

The fountain is an ancient symbol that arrived in Granada from pre-Christian civilizations in the East. The lion spewing water from its mouth is the sun, which gives life to everything. The 12 suns of the fountain are the 12 suns of the zodiac, the 12 months of the year.

The Alhambra Museum displays one stone lion from the Fountain of the Lions, and this lion has already been restored. The sides of the lion are asymmetrical, so when one sees it from one side, it looks different when one sees it from the other side.

What is interesting is that today many Islamic communities forbid the representation of human and animal figures. During the Muslim era in Spain, these depictions were not allowed in religious buildings, but they did appear in secular works. Figurative art in Al-Andalus flourished from the Omayyad period and the Caliphate to the Nasrid dynasty, when objects and living beings were commonly represented in private houses and palaces. Although initially decoration tended to show inanimate objects and use symbolic language, Islamic art gradually assimilated the customs and artistic styles of the conquered areas through the filter of its own particular aesthetics. Animal-shaped fountains are frequently found in Moorish palaces in Spain. This is explained in the Alhambra Museum. This also explains the very large Vase of the Gazelles in the museum, which depicts gazelles.

The Alhambra Palace, in the Hall of Kings, also has a ceiling painting of the ten first kings of the Nazari dynasty. It is believed that this was painted at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th centuries.

The art magazine Descubrir El Arte, Año XII, No. 142, December, 2010 issue discussed the representation of human and animal figures in an article called Splendores del Arte Islamico. The De Nieuwe Kerk Museum of Amsterdam had a show of Islamic art, showing the Khalili Collection, one of the world's best Islamic art collections. The article was written by Juan Ignacio Samperio Itturalde. He said that the Koran does not allow figurative art in the Muslim temples, but it allows it in secular places. The Hadith is a collection of the views of Mohamed, and he was not in favor of any figurative art. In Arabia one cannot find figurative art, but the further one goes from Arabia in the Muslim world, one finds more figurative art. Iran and Mogul India had plenty of figurative art as their tradition. This also applies to Moorish Spain, during the reign of Al-Andalus. In Moorish Spain there was much figurative art in secular places, although with the passage of centuries and the destruction of buildings, little remains. Much of this figurative art can be found in the ceramics that they created, and is now found only in museums around Spain. These ceramics show a profusion of animals, such as gazelles, deer, birds, and lions. Apparently many of these were found in Medina Azahara in Cordoba.