After viewing the Patio de Lindaraja from above, we descended into it and strolled through its garden on the ground level. Except for the Palace of the Lions on its north side, the enclosing structures are of Christian origin. In Nasrid times the gardens had occupied the entire space between the Palace of the Lions and the wall of the Alhambra. But in the 16th century the Emperor Charles V, after deciding to make his royal residence in the Alhambra, had a series of apartments built around the courtyard to serve as provisional quarters while the planned Renaissance palace was being built. Of course the latter mostly remained a mirage in his lifetime, and he was so busy traveling around the Holy Roman Empire fighting his wars that he rarely had time to stay in the Alhambra anyway; but subsequent generations were able to benefit from the construction. Washington Irving, for example, stayed in the Emperor’s chambers in 1829.
The Patio de Lindaraja is surrounded by an arcaded gallery, of which the supporting columns are of Nasrid origin. In the middle of the patio is a large but simple fountain, surrounded by garden plots filled with tall cypresses and bordered by well-tended hedges. Adjacent to the Lindaraja there is another, smaller courtyard known as the Patio of the Grated Window owing to a wrought iron balcony on the south side. It also has a gallery with Nasrid-era columns as well as an exquisite white marble fountain and elegant mosaic paving composed of stones forming geometric designs.
From the Patio as well as the Mirador of Lindaraja there are wonderful views to be had of the city of Granada. To the north, the Albaicín hill rises majestically over the Albaicín and Sacromonte districts. Turning a little to the west, one sees the Cathedral of Granada with its stately bell-tower, the Royal Monastery of St. Jerome (Real Monasterio de San Jerónimo) and other landmarks in the heart of the city. We would see more of those sights later that day.
Looking east from the Patio de Lindaraja we could see the Partal Palace (El Palacio del Partal ), where we were headed next. Built by the Nasrid ruler Muhammed III (r. 1302-1309) in the early 14th century, it is the oldest surviving Nasrid palace. Unlike the other Nasrid palaces, after the conquest of Granada in 1492 it was given over to private ownership, and only reacquired by the Spanish government in 1891. By then it had undergone many changes, including partial demolition. Today only the northernmost structures – a portico and the Torre de las Damas (Tower of the Ladies) – remain, and the Partal Palace is also known as the Palacio del Pórtico. There is a pool in front of the portico, which may have been originally enclosed by other structures in the same fashion as the Court of the Myrtles in the Comares Palace. Sadly, the last private owner removed a wooden cupola ceiling from the Tower and shipped it to Germany, where it now resides in a Berlin museum.
To the south of the Partal Palace, on a series of terraces rising above it, lie the Partal Gardens, a lush and idyllic bower perfect for restful strolling. It is not a holdover from Nasrid times, however; it is a twentieth-century creation, dating from the 1930s, undertaken with the purpose of improving a neglected area which become overgrown with weeds and brush — and also of facilitating archaeological activity. For the gardens occupy the site of what is now known as the Palacio del Partal Alto, or Upper Partal Palace, which preceded the present Partal Palace, sometimes called the Palacio del Partal Bajo to distinguish it from its predecessor. It was also called the Palace of Yusuf III (r. 1408-1417) because it was originally thought to have been built in his time, but now it is known to have been an earlier construction, from the reign of Muhammad II (1273–1302); Yusuf III merely remodeled it.
After the Christian takeover of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella handed over the Upper Partal Palace to Iñigo López de Mendoza, first Marquis of Mondejar and second Count of Tendilla, who had served with distinction in the Granada wars, and named him Governor (alcaide) of the Alhambra and Captain General of Granada. The palace remained in the hands of the Tendilla-Mondejar family until 1717, when King Philip V fired the current Marquis, José de Mendoza Ibáñez de Segovia, abolished the office of alcaide, and confiscated all his properties. He did this in retaliation for Mendoza’s support of his rival for the Spanish throne, Archduke Charles of Austria, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Apparently the confiscation did not take effect immediately or was not complete, however, because Mendoza had time to sell some of the palace’s furnishings (now found in private collections) and demolish the palace itself, perhaps out of spite. (The sources currently available to me do not explain how he was able to do this after the property was confiscated.) In any case it began to be excavated in 1934, but only the foundations remain and some of them are still buried.
From the Partal Gardens we traipsed back toward the Charles V palace and then turned east again to follow the Calle Real de la Alhambra, past the Church of Santa Maria, the Ángel Barrios Legacy Museum, various administrative offices and the gift shop.
The Church of Santa Maria de la Encarnación stands on the site of the congregational (main) mosque of the Alhambra complex, which was commissioned by Emir Muhammad III (r. 1302-1309) and completed in 1305. After 1492 it was converted into a Christian church, but it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1576. The present church, which belongs to the Archbishopric of Granada, was begun in 1581 and completed in 1618. The interior, which I did not visit, is furnished in Baroque style.
Ángel Barrios (1882-1964) was a Spanish composer and concert guitarist who was born in Granada, where his family apparently lived in a private house inside the Alhambra that served as a gathering place for artists, musicians and poets. The house was located next to the hammam (bathhouse) of the mosque. The hammam was partly demolished in 1534, and its remains were later incorporated into the house, which was built and/or remodeled in the 17th-18th centuries. In 1934, the architect Leopoldo Torres Balbás (1880-1960) undertook a reconstruction and restoration of the bathhouse, which coincided with the end of the Barrios family’s residence there. The house was then converted into a small and intimate museum where the instruments – piano and guitar – and personal effects of the composer are displayed next to the wall of the bathhouse; in addition, the museum incorporates an archaeological garden, with a pool recovered from the Palacio del Partal Alto, which now serves as a venue for concerts and other public events. I would have loved to visit this museum, along with the main museum in the Palace of Charles V, but that would have required another day in the Alhambra. I consider myself fortunate to have seen as much of the Alhambra as I did.
The gift shop was full of beautiful wares, most notably jewel boxes, wall plaques, picture frames and other objects lacquered with incredibly intricate and elegant designs, somewhat reminiscent of the Palekh lacquer art I had encountered in Russia, although the Alhambra offerings featured abstract geometric designs rather than the fairy-tale scenes gracing the Palekh items. All of them were exquisitely beautiful and far beyond the constraints of my budget, so I confined myself to the purchase of a few postcards and photo prints, which now hang on the walls of our home.
Resuming our trek eastward on the Calle Real, we passed the ruins of the Palace of the Abencerrajes, among others, until eventually the road became a narrow walkway between two towering hedges. Although this was Spain and not Crete, I expected at any moment to see the Minotaur lurking in the shadows. But eventually we emerged into an open space, where I found myself completely disoriented, without a clue as to where we were. Writing this account seven years after the trip, I’m not sure exactly how we proceeded from there; judging from the map of the Alhambra and the photos I took along the way, we trudged past the Torre de Baltasar de la Cruz before reaching the Torre del Agua at the east end of the Alhambra. There we descended some steps to the foot of the tower and found ourselves next to a structure which resembled an aqueduct. Indeed it turned out to be the the terminus of the Acequia Real de la Alhambra, which supplied water to the Alhambra from the Darro River, 6 kilometers away. From there we embarked on the path to the Generalife, the idyllic summer palace of the Nasrids.
The derivation of the name is disputed, but there is a tradition that Generalife is a Spanish rendition of the Arabic phrase jannat al-‘arīf, meaning something like “garden of the artist.” Its origins are also murky, but it is thought that the initial construction took place around the turn of the 14th century; in any case, it was frequently remodeled, redecorated and enhanced over the following centuries, both by Muslim and Christian owners. It was built as a private retreat and pleasure palace for the Emir and his family. From the start it was surrounded by extensive gardens, which provided sustenance as well as esthetic enjoyment for the inhabitants.
From the Torre del Agua, one reaches the Generalife by walking north on the Paseo de los Nogales, the Promenade of the Walnut Trees, which passes by the west side of the palace grounds. At the south end of the property we encountered the Teatro del Generalife, an open-air theater designed to serve as the main venue for ballet performances at the Granada International Festival of Art and Dance. It was opened in 1954 and has gone through several renovations since, including a major one in 2005. On its north side is a set of steps that leads to a wall of cypress hedges with archways that open into a panoply of gardens. These are known as the Jardines Nuevos, or New Gardens, to distinguish them from the older market gardens, known as Las Huertas, on the terraced hillside between the Generalife and the walls of the Alhambra. The Jardines Nuevos in their present form are a twentieth-century feature and have little in common botanically with their Nasrid predecessors. Regardless, they do convey an extremely satisfying esthetic experience.
The New Gardens consist of two sections, northern and southern. The former was designed by Leopoldo Torres Balbás in 1931 and the latter by Francisco Prieto Moreno in 1951. The southern garden is arranged around a long central rectangular pool or canal, similar in orientation to the Court of the Myrtles in the Comares Palace. At its southern end, on a raised terrace, is a spectacular fountain, surrounded by cypresses. I couldn’t find out a name for the fountain, so I suggest that the explorer Ponce de Leon, who set out to seek the Fountain of Youth in the New World, actually found it but kept it a secret and somehow dismantled it, brought it back to Spain, and then reassembled it at the Generalife. Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring its water source with him, so it didn’t work any more – at least it didn’t work for me, when I tried it.
The northern section of the gardens features a riotous collection of flowers, which was especially noteworthy because we saw it in November, a month which is not normally associated with floral flamboyance. I also noted that the walkways throughout the Generalife gardens were paved with strikingly elegant mosaic-style stonework, composed of pebbles embedded in a cement matrix. I subsequently found out that the pebbles are sourced from the rivers of Granada – white ones from the Darro and black ones from the Genil. We were allowed some time in which to wander around the gardens and relax; I took advantage of the opportunity to take photos not only of the floral displays but also of some of our fellow-travelers – most especially Chuck and Elouise Mattox, but also some of our other favorites such as Jim and Joan Hinds. I also shot some nice views of the northeast quarter of the Alhambra.
After roaming in the gardens for a bit, we entered the Generalife Palace itself via a couple of small courtyards at its southwest corner — the Patio de Desmontaje (dismounting) and the Patio de Polo. The latter, in addition to being completely covered in pebble-mosaic paving, featured a central Nasrid-style fountain in white marble with channels representing the four rivers of Eden radiating from it. After passing through the Patio de Polo, we found ourselves in the central courtyard of the Generalife, the Patio de la Acequia (“Courtyard of the Water Canal”). The canal runs the entire length of the courtyard but is split in the middle by a platform that crosses over it. There, on the west wall, is also a mirador with views of the gardens and the Alhambra. At either end of the courtyard stands a pavilion – the Pabellón Sur and the Pabellón Norte. We spent little time at the South Pavilion, which is less well preserved than the North Pavilion, and in any case the light was unfavorable for photographing it.
The North Pavilion is fronted by a five-arched portico, behind which is a gallery leading to the main room, the Sala Regia (“Royal Chamber”). At the northwestern corner rises the Torre de Isma’il, erected by the Emir Isma’il I (r. 1314-1325) to commemorate a 1319 battle in which he had repelled an invasion by the Castilians. At that time the Generalife consisted of only one floor; the second, essentially extending the Tower of Isma’il across the entire width of the North Pavilion, was added by the Catholic Monarchs in 1494. Since then there have been many modifications and restorations of the Generalife, with the magnificent result that we saw in 2017.
Above the Patio de la Acequia on its northeast side, extending to the south of the right wing of the North Pavilion, is the Patio de los Cipreses de la Sultana — Courtyard of the Sultana’s Cypresses — a post-Nasrid addition consisting of a rectangular pool with a large island within it, all surrounded by greenery, a fabulously beautiful area right out of the Arabian Nights —one expects to see Scheherazade entertaining the Sultan with her stories of Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin’s Lamp, etc.
On the northeast side of the Patio de los Ciprises is the Escalera del Agua (“Water Stairway”), a set of flights of stairs with balustrades containing open mini-aqueducts on each side. At each landing of the staircase there is a small round pool with a fountain.
The time allotted for our visit to the Alhambra was now running short, and in order not to miss our bus we had to begin our trek back to the parking lot. Hence not enough time remained for me to obtain decent photographs of the Patio de los Ciprises and the Escalera, let alone the Mirador Romántico, a 19th-century pavilion located on a hill nearby which is said to offer wonderful views of the entire area. So for these I’ll refer the reader to Wikipedia, which has an article on the Generalife with gorgeous photos of all its attractions, including the ones I missed.
The way back to the parking lot led along the Paseo de las Adelfas, the Path of the Oleanders, a walkway lined with oleander bushes trained to grow in an idyllic archway covering the pavement. This led to the equally splendid Paseo de los Cipreses and finally to our bus stop.
We would see more of Granada that day, and it is a memorable city, among the most beautiful I have visited. But nothing for me will ever match the splendor and beauty of the Alhambra.