The fairytale royal palace in Granada is the most important legacy of the Nasrids, a Moorish dynasty.
History
Of all Spain’s tens of thousands of historical monuments, the Alhambra stands supreme. The final manifestation of the doomed Moorish civilization in the peninsula, it encapsulates the last six centuries of Spain. Taken by Fernando and Isabel in a surge that culminated in Catholic Spain ruling vast tracts of Europe and the New World, it, like the country, eventually fell into dereliction and then use as a barracks in the war-torn 19th century. Rediscovered by Romantic travellers, it is now one of Europe’s most-visited destinations, with well over three million visitors annually. The post-Moorish fortunes of the Alhambra have mirrored those of Spain. The name Alhambra is from the Arabic al-qalat al-hamra, meaning the red fort, perhaps from the colour of the sandstone, especially in the setting sun.
Essentials
It’s best to buy your ticket in advance at http://www.alhambra-tickets.es, or at the La Caixa bank; visit any Spanish branch (Monday-Friday 0830-1400) or 902-888001 from within Spain or +34 934-923750 from abroad. Choose the day and time you wish to visit, and then pick up your tickets from any La Caixa cash machine (full-price tickets and children's tickets only), from the machines at the Alhambra ticket office or from the ticket office itself, though expect to queue. If you just turn up at the ticket office, there are long queues, which you can bypass by buying entry at the machines (€1 extra). Expect long waits until your entry slot or a ‘come back tomorrow’ in busy periods.
Night visits, March-October Tuesday-Saturday 2200-2330 (ticket office open 2130-2230), November-February Friday-Saturday 2000-2130 (tickets 1930-2030) can be booked in the same way as other tickets and cost the same. If the moon is up and shining into the courtyards, this is an unforgettable experience.
There’s not a lot of information posted about the place, so you may want to consider the audio guide for €3 (though it seems to clash with full appreciation of the palace). The official guidebook is €6 in a variety of languages at the ticket office shop. In the ticket office is also a tourist information kiosk.
For the disabled, there is an established route that avoids stairs and takes in as much as possible; the ticket office will supply a map and advice.It’s a fabulous experience to walk up to the palace, but a day at the Alhambra is hard on the feet, so you may well want to ascend on wheels. By far the easiest way to do this is to catch the No 32 bus (Alhambrabus) from Plaza Nueva, which zips up the hill every five minutes or so. If you’re thinking of driving, it’s likely to take you longer to get to the Alhambra than on foot, but there are two ways; a serpentine route that ascends from off Calle Molinos, or a purpose-built back road that leaves the Ronda Sur bypass, which in turn comes off the circunvalación which circles the north and west of the city. It’s well signposted; if arriving from outside town, don’t leave the bypass until you see the Alhambra signs. Depending on how busy the car parks are, you may have to park a fair walk away from the entrance.
If you are walking up, it’s a steepish climb. Most visitors ascend via the Cuesta de Gomérez from the Plaza Nueva; here a different ascent is suggested, and the Cuesta can be used for the return trip.
At one end of Plaza Nueva is the Church of Santa Ana. Keeping it on your right, follow the course of the river along a cobbled street (this walk is detailed on page). The Alhambra will soon become visible above you to your right. Reaching the end of the café-lined promenade known as Paseo de los Tristes, turn right and cross the bridge. From here a pretty path called Cuesta del Rey Chico (also known as Cuesta de los Chinos) ascends gently directly to the Alhambra. It’s a fine little walk: after passing under the mighty bridge leading to the Generalife, you emerge alongside El Mimbre restaurant; turn left and you’ll be at the ticket office.
If you’ve purchased your ticket and your entry slot for the Nasrid Palace is a long way off, it’s a good idea to head for the Generalife first, before returning to the main centre of the Alhambra. If it is fairly soon, head directly towards the Alcazaba and the principal buildings. That route is followed here.
Follow the signs for the Alcazaba and Palacios Nazaríes. Passing through the checkpoint, you descend the main street of the Alhambra complex, the Calle Real. This used to be the heart of the Moorish town within the Alhambra, and the location of the main mosque and the Baños del Polinario, or public baths. The baths are still in good shape; go in and admire their brickwork and horseshoe arches. There’s some stucco work preserved, but best are the typical star-shaped holes in the ceiling. In this building, which was also once a tavern, is a small museum dedicated to the Granadan composer Angel Barrios. Next door, where the mosque once stood, is the early 17th-century church of Santa María, even more out of place here than the Palace of Carlos V, which is the next building.
Palacio de Carlos V
Many words have been written in prosecution and defence of this building, unmistakeable with its massive modern-looking blocks of stone studded with huge rings held in the mouths of lions and eagles. As a Renaissance building in its own right, it has several striking features. The core of most complaints is its heavy-handedness in comparison with the delicate dignity of the Muslim palace, part of which was demolished to accommodate it. But it’s easy to be tough on Carlos; he liked the Nasrid Palace well enough to use it as his own quarters, and if he had simply built his palace over the Nasrid one, as was the custom of both Moors and Christians in those days, the issue would never have arisen.
The palace was never finished in Carlos’s day – indeed the roof went on only in the 20th century. Construction had been funded by taxes raised from the Moriscos – the nominally converted descendants of the Moors – but with their major rebellion in 1568, it ground to a halt. What remains is impressive, but definitely grandiose rather than subtle. The southern portal is supported on Ionic columns and has figures of Victory, Fame and Fertility over the door, as well as panels with mythological scenes and the arms of Carlos V. This contrasts with the western Doric entrance, with escutcheons carved with Hercules and Atlas flanking the arms of Felipe II; below are scenes of the battle of Pavia.
Most of the building is taken up by the circular central courtyard, an imposing space with superb acoustics; try whispering from the centre. While the octagonal chapel features temporary exhibitions, most of the rooms of the palace are taken up by the Museo de la Alhambra (Tue-Sat 0930-1430, free with Alhambra ticket), and Museo de Bellas Artes (Tue 1430-2000, Wed-Sat 0900-2000 (1800 Nov-Feb), Sun 0900-1430; EU citizens free, others €1.50). The former, on the ground floor, describes itself as having ‘the world’s best collection of Nasrid art’; not such an impressive claim considering that the Nasrids were purely a Granadan dynasty. The museum, though, is well worth a visit. There are many tiled and stuccoed panels from the site itself, as well as the fine painted Jar of the Gazelles, a 15th-century urn 1.5 m high. The Fine Arts museum upstairs has a collection of works from Granadine artists and some fine religious pieces, especially sculptures by Diego de Siloé, Alonso Cano and Pedro de Mena. An enamel triptych from Limoges features El Gran Capitán, but the museum is unfortunately placed; it’s hard to resist the call of the Alhambra’s many other attractions. There’s also a reasonable book and souvenir shop on the ground floor of the building.
La Alcazaba
From the Palacio de Carlos V in La Alhambra, head through the monumental gateway known as the Puerta del Vino, for it was used in Christian times to store wine, to the large open space in front of the Alcazaba. La Alcazaba, the fortress part of the compound, is muscular, unashamedly functional and highly impressive. Older than the rest of the buildings on the site, much of its finer features were destroyed by Napoleon’s troops in the Peninsular War. Its effective defensive design is immediately evident upon entering, as you are forced to walk along a narrow passageway overlooked by high towers above you. Climb the one at the corner, the Torre del Homenaje (Tower of Homage), for views, before crossing the large central courtyard. This was once covered with dwellings housing the soldiers who defended the complex. A pile of stone cannonballs are still ready for use in an alcove on one side of the area.
The high Torre de la Vela (watchtower) looms large over the city and has a spectacular panorama. Directly across from you is the hill of the Albayzín with its flood of white houses, while to the left stretches the modern city. Turning further to the left, you can see an earlier fortification on the next hill; these are the Torres Bermejas (Vermilion Towers). They’re actually more of a light orange in colour if you walk to them; you can’t enter, but there’s a good restaurant at the base. The large orange castellated affair further along the ridge is the Alhambra Palace hotel. On January 2, the Torre de la Vela is filled with granadinos queuing to have a go at ringing the bell; if a single woman does so, it’s said that she’ll be engaged within the year. You exit the Alcazaba through a long formal garden. In the centre of it is a fountain that used to stand atop the fountain in the Court of Lions in the Nasrid Palace.
The Palacios Nazaríes
The pinnacle of any Alhambra visit is the magical closed world of the Moorish palaces. No matter what alterations and restructuring have taken place, even though the original bright colours have completely faded away, this ensemble is one of staggering architectural and artistic achievement. Many visitors are left in a sort of amazed incomprehension after passing through the elaborate patios and halls.
To move beyond this level, it is helpful to have some understanding of Islamic architectural principles. While it is untrue that Islam prohibits the depiction of human or animal figures (although at certain periods prevailing fundamentalism certainly discouraged it), they are not a common decorative theme; vegetal and geometric motifs form the bulk of the decoration. Perhaps the fundamental principle of the Alhambra is that of levels, or hierarchy. As certain chambers within the building are clearly attributable by size and ornateness to different strata of the royal entourage, so the decoration of each room follows this theme. Small and intricate pieces of pattern join to form a larger design; as our focus widens, the design widens with it. A tiny mocárab or tiled motif, perfect in itself, becomes merely a star in an entire firmament. This has clear theological overtones, and the message is reinforced by the Arabic phrases repeated over and over around rooms and by visionary poems that clearly describe the Alhambra as a small jewel reflecting the unimaginable grandeur of Allah.
The palaces are entered through the Mexuar, still a fine space although much meddled with by both the Nasrid rulers and then the Catholic Monarchs, who converted what was once a reception hall into a chapel. Despite this, you’ll notice several features that recur throughout the building. The ceramic dado decorated with coloured polygons is typical, as is the inlaid wooden ceiling (restored) and the arches with their mocárabes (concave depressions forming an array of icicle-like points). The capitals of the columns are particularly fine and preserve much original colour. The gallery was put in when the conversion to chapel took place. Beyond the hall is an angled prayer-room with a mihrab accurately aligned towards Mecca and windows looking over the Albayzín.
You’ll soon arrive at a small courtyard with a fountain, known as the Patio del Cuarto Dorado. The northern arcade has impressive stucco and arabesques, while the room off here has a gilt wooden ceiling put in by the Catholic Monarchs. However, the space is dominated by the high façade of the Salón de Comares, constructed around 1370. Under its elegant wooden eaves is amazingly intricate decoration, all of which was brightly coloured until as recently as the mid-19th century. Going through this façade, we are faced not with an equally monumental hallway, but with a cramped space with small corridors leading off it. The Nasrids knew that, amid all this earthly delight, their days were numbered, and defence remained an important consideration.
Twisting through to your left, you emerge in the Patio de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles), centred on a large pool of water that seems to have been designed to exactly fit the reflections of the two large façades at either end of it. Both of these rest on a portico of seven round arches topped with perforated plasterwork known as sebka. The porticos end in alcoves richly adorned with mocárabes, which preserve some blue colouring. On the near side, you pass through the Sala de la Barca, named for the Arabic inscription baraka, or blessing, that adorns the wall (and not because the restored 20th-century ceiling resembles a boat, or barca, as some tour guides solicitously point out), and into the high Salón de Comares, surrounded by highly adorned alcoves. Part of the gilt ceramic floor remains and every inch of the room is intricately decorated. Gaze on the wooden ceiling and its hierarchy of stars, plausibly claimed to represent the seven heavens and the eighth, at the centre, wherein resides Allah. Although on first count you’ll likely only see six rows of stars, the seventh may become clear before you get dizzy. The ceiling is reconstructed from fragments, but has recaptured the impact of the original. It is thought that this was an important state room where the Nasrid rulers received guests.
At the other end of the Court of Myrtles, the façade is just that, since Charles V knocked down that part of the palace to park his own construction alongside. So after examining the other chambers around the court, head through into the most-photographed part of the ensemble, the Patio de los Leones, or Court of Lions. Here the grace of the Moorish design reaches new heights. Framing the central fountain propped up by 12 lovable kings of beasts is a fantasy of stonework. Two pavilions supported by the slenderest of columns and most delicate of arches face each other across the courtyard, the whole of which is framed by an elegant colonnade. Stop and linger, then move anti-clockwise around the courtyard. On the first of the long sides is the Sala de los Abencerrajes, graced by a cupola of mocárabes. It was here that Boabdil was supposed to have had the leading members of the Abencerraje family murdered one by one; the proof is the ‘blood stains’ in the fountain.
At the far end of the Court of Lions is the Sala de los Reyes, whose alcoves feature a range of paintings on sheepskin, depicting in contrast with the rest of the palace, portraits of seated rulers and a range of knightly scenes. They bear clear Christian influences and some scholars feel that they must have been painted by Italian artists resident in the Nasrid city.
The next chamber, the Sala de Dos Hermanas has another grand cupola similar to that of the Sala de los Abencerrajes opposite. The adjoining Sala de los Ajimeces has perhaps the most romantic of the Alhambra’s lookouts, the Mirador de Lindaraja, from the original Arabic meaning eyes of Aixa’s house (Aixa was the mother of the last Moorish ruler Boabdil). Originally it would have looked over a garden and beyond to the city. The tiny chamber is as perfect as anything here, with its dado of coloured tiles, stucco work and ceiling embedded with stained glass.
Beyond here, the Imperial chambers were built as the residence of Carlos V; Washington Irving stayed in a room off here. There are more excellent views over the Albayzín from here; you descend and exit through a pair of patios, off one of which are the original Moorish baths, again with star-shaped skylights for steam to exit.
After exiting, and even though you may well be overwhelmed by stuccoed splendour, keep going ahead and to your left to examine two more small buildings, the Palacio del Pórtico, a small, earlier palace fronted by an elegant pool, and next to it, a sublime little oratory with an elaborate mihrab.
Generalife
Retracing your steps towards the ticket office, follow the signs for the Generalife. Although it could be an insurance company, the name of this summer palace separated from the bulk of the Alhambra’s buildings is usually accepted to mean ‘the gardens of the master builder’. It is indeed surrounded by gardens, but these were mostly planted in the 19th and 20th centuries and perhaps bear little resemblance to the original Moorish design. The walk to the Generalife is down a grove of cypress and jasmine; the building is entered through a controversially renovated doorway marked with the symbol of the key of Allah. Passing through a courtyard, you emerge into the Patio de la Acequia, an extensive space marked by an array of criss-cross water jets that sprinkle into a long pool. The belvedere, which gives fine views, was a Christian addition, such openness being anathema to the Moors, who preferred to look out only from the small mirador halfway along, decorated with 14th-century stucco. A herb garden along the pool scents the air. At the end of the patio is the Sala Regia, or royal hall, accessed via a five-arched portico. The hall is small but well proportioned, with fine mocárabes on the capitals and cornice and a small delicate mirador. The repeated inscription reads “There is one and only one conqueror, and that is Allah”. The top floor was added by the Catholic Monarchs; from it there are views of the Albayzín and the caves of Sacromonte, but to reach it you first pass through the Patio de los Cipreses (Court of the Cypresses). This was once a place to bathe, and the tree is said to have borne witness to the seduction of the luckless Boabdil’s wife by a noble of the Abencerraje family, an indiscretion that may have led to the massacre of the clan.
After visiting the top floor, ascend to the upper gardens by way of the water staircase, which has a stream flowing down the banisters, yet another example of Moorish hydrological genius. This garden is full of squirrels, who are keenly watched by the Alhambra’s vast population of semi-feral cats.
Leaving the Alhambra
When you’re ready to leave the Alhambra, walk back to the courtyard in front of the Alcazaba and turn left to descend through the Torre de la Justicia (Gate of Justice), the most impressive of the Alhambra’s remaining gateways. Turn as you pass through it and note the Islamic motifs of the key and the hand engraved on the outside. Washington Irving was told that on the day the hand reached down to grasp the key, the Alhambra would crumble to dust and the buried gold of the Moors would be revealed. Below here is an ornate fountain from the time of Carlos V, with three grotesque heads and pomegranate symbols. Descend from here down an avenue lined with elms planted by the Duke of Wellington to the Puerta de las Granadas, or Gate of the Pomegranates. From here the Cuesta de Gomérez descends to Plaza Nueva....
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