Alhambra

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The Alhambra [ aˈlambɾa ] is an important city castle ( kasbah ) on the Sabikah hill of Granada in Spain , which is considered to be one of the most important examples of the Moorish style of Islamic art . The Alhambra is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Europe and has been a World Heritage Site since 1984 . The castle complex is about 740 m long and up to 220 m wide. In the east the Generalife Summer Palace is in front.

and display information about the image
View of the Alhambra from the Albaicín hill
Plan of the Alhambra
Plan of the Palacio Arabe

origin of the name

Puerta del Vino

The origin of the word Alhambra is controversial. It is believed that the Arabic name qasr al-hamrā '  /قصر الحمراء / qaṣr al-ḥamrāʾ  / 'The red (palace)' or: Al-ḥamrāʾ (الحمراء) is due to the reddish color of the outer walls. Already in the 9th century there is talk of a "red castle" near Granada. This assumption is supported by the fact that the color adjective appears not only in the name of the fortress, but also in the name of the city of Granada (granat) . Robert Pocklington is convinced that the name of the Puerta del Vino (' Wine Gate') is a disguising loan translation that goes back to the old name of the gate: Bāb or, in Maghrebian- Andalusian Arabic, Bīb al- ḥamrāʾ ' red gate'. Last but not least, the Torres Bermejas ('reddish towers') as a building complex connected to the Alhambra are another reference to the color red .

Another interpretation of al-ḥamrāʾ is associated with the founders of the palace complex: with the Banū al-Aḥmar, d. i. the Nasrids of Granada, a branch of the Medinan al-Ḫazraǧ clan who emigrated to Andalusia . So it is in a line of verse about the founders: "The sons of the tribe of the Ḫazraǧ, who believe in God and help his messengers to victory."

history

The building complex called the Alhambra is a combination of a fortified upper town with a separately fortified citadel for the ruler, typical of the Middle Ages . In addition to the aristocracy and the military, the upper town also housed the higher-ranking citizens, merchants and important craftsmen. The armory was also here. In literature, the Alcazaba is a city castle (acropolis), a large-scale fortification with a city-like character with a city castle or citadel. In Granada, the citadel is called the Alcazaba, while the entire complex is called the Alhambra.

Origins

The castle hill was already settled in pre-Roman times. After conquering the Iberian Peninsula, the Moors built a castle here. It was documented during the civil wars of the 9th to 12th centuries as "Ma'qil Ilbīra" (Elvira fortress), when Sawwar Ibn Hamdun moved into the fortress because of civil unrest in the Caliphate of Cordoba . It also proved its worth as a fortress in several wars against the Caliphate of Cordoba.

Under King Bādis ibn Habbūs (1038-1073) his Jewish chancellor Jūsuf ibn Naghralla (Jehoseph han-Nāghīdh) built a fortress (al-ḥiṣn al- ḥamrāʿ) on the rock of the Alhambra , according to the memoirs of ʿAbd Allāh (1073-1090) to protect yourself from the city's population.

After the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, the Berber leader Zāwī ibn Zīrī took control of the province (kūra) Ilbīra and made it and its surroundings independent. According to his great-great-nephew, the Zīrīden then founded the city of Granada, which was easier to defend than the city of Ilbīra, a few kilometers away.

Later the Berber dynasties of the Almoravids and Almohads took control. There is no information about the appearance of the castle during this period.

1238 to 1492

Comares, Court of Myrtles. The shape of the water inflow in the foreground prevents the formation of waves and guarantees the mirror-smooth surface in the pool despite constant refilling.
Myrtenhof, reverse view from above, photo by Walter Mittelholzer , 1932

In 1238 the first Nasrid ruler , Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr Al-Ahmar (English: "the Red"), moved his residence from Jaén to Granada and founded his own dynasty as Mohammed I in Granada, the Nasrids, which lasted until 1492 ruled over the emirate of Granada . Muhammad initiated the construction of the citadel on the site of today's Alhambra. The fortification of the Alcazaba (upper town) was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. The ruler's throne stood in the Comares tower on the edge of the fortress. So the emirs always had their country in view.

The use of the Alcazaba was reorganized under Yusuf I (1333-1354) and Muhammad V (1354-1391). The citadel now had a purely military significance. The rest of the upper town was expanded to become the seat of government and administration. The emirs' private residences were also located here. At the instigation of his lover Soraja , Emir Abu l-Hasan Ali had his wife Aisha and the Crown Prince, Muhammad (Boabdil), locked up in the basement of the Comares Tower . According to legend, the two managed to escape in a basket that helpers let down on the outside of the tower.

Under the rule of the Caliphs of Cordoba, Al-Andalus was a rich and prosperous country. Art and science were world famous, the craft was considered a role model throughout Europe. There were schools for all children, and hospitals, libraries and leisure centers for the city's residents. The roads were paved and there were water pipes everywhere - such a luxury was unknown in Christian Europe. In the Emirate of Granada, although politically and economically highly dependent on Castile , this culture experienced a last, late bloom.

Towards the end of the Nasrid Empire, the citadel was reinforced by an artillery bulwark towards the city.

The last Moorish ruler Muhammad XII. (Boabdil) surrendered after a long siege in November 1491 and handed the fortress over to the Catholic Kings ( Spanish Reyes Católicos ) on January 2nd, 1492 . With that the last bastion of the Moors in Spain fell.

1492 until today

On March 31, 1492, the Catholic Kings Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragón issued the so-called Alhambra Edict , which ordered the expulsion of all Jews who were not willing to convert from the kingdom and from all Spanish possessions. In the reign of terror of the Christian Inquisition that followed, Jews and "heretics" were persecuted, Arabic books were burned and the Islamic as well as parts of the Jewish population were forcibly Christianized.

After the handover of the Alhambra to the Spanish kings, Don Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones was installed as the royal administrator of the Alhambra. He made a huge cistern system in Section ditch between the Alcazaba and the palace area build. The area was filled up; this is how the Zisternenplatz was created. In the 16th century, a front wall with a low round tower was built in front of the Alcazaba.

King Charles I (when Charles V was also Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) planned to make Granada the seat of government of the Spanish kingdom. That is why he had his architect Pedro Machuca build a large Renaissance palace on the Alhambra. Since the kingdom's main interests had shifted due to the discovery of America in 1492 , the residence plans were dropped. Charles I's palace was never completed.

During the War of the Spanish Succession , the bailiffs offered resistance to the Bourbons . This resulted in their disempowerment in 1714. During the Bourbon era, the Alhambra deteriorated more and more. During the occupation of Spain by the French under Napoleon , the Napoleonic soldiers restored the irrigation system and the gardens, but when they withdrew they blew up parts of the Alhambra so that the ammunition they had left would not fall into the hands of the Spanish.

Since the Alhambra was rediscovered in the 19th century, restoration and repair work has taken place. Some restorations of the early period (e.g. domed buildings over the Pórticos des Patio de Leones) were later changed as they represented anachronisms.

Building parts

  • Aerial view showing the palace of Charles V with its round inner courtyard and square outer dimensions

  • The Alcazaba

  • Decoration of an arch in the Alhambra

The entire complex of the Alhambra can be roughly divided into four parts: the Generalife outside the fortress walls, the medina, the palaces of the Naṣrids and the Alcazaba ( citadel ). Above the Generalife are the ruins of the Silla del Moro ('Seat of the Moors', also Castillo de Santa Elena), above, on the summit of Cerro del Sol is the Dār al-ʿarūsa ('House of the Bride').

The defense system with the Alcazaba

The Alhambra is surrounded by a tower-reinforced city wall. The Alcazaba (from Arabic al-qaṣba) forms the bulwark of the Alhambra. They separate high towers and walls from the rest of the walled medina. From here walls lead to the Torres Bermejas outside the Alhambra on the other side of the Bosque ('forest') de la Alhambra . This wall is now interrupted by the Puerta de las Granadas gate built by Pedro Machuca in the 16th century .

Another wall led in the direction of the Albaicín over the bridge now incorrectly known as Puente del Cadí . Archaeologists suspect that this Coracha (a term from the Spanish-Arabic fortress architecture) connected the Alhambra not only with the Darro , but also with the al-qaṣba al-qadīma ('old fortress'), the royal seat of the Zīrīds on the Albaicín.

The Naṣrid Palaces

The Naṣridenpaläste (Palacios Nazaries) with their gardens (e.g. el Partal ) are the heart of the Alhambra. The seat of government and the private rooms of the Moorish rulers were located here. The wooden dome from the Torre de las Damas of the Palacio del Partal is in the Berlin Museum of Islamic Art . The walls are decorated with arabesques and Arabic lettering made of stucco , the domes are decorated on the inside with muqarnas . The main complex is the Alcázar with the throne room (Sala de Embajadores) in the Comares tower and the lion court, which is designed in the style of a Persian Tschahār Bāgh . A fountain supported by twelve stone lions gave the courtyard the name Patio de los Leones . At the edge of the fountain is a saying by the poet Ibn Zamrak: Blessed is the eye that sees this garden of beauty . The likelihood of earthquake damage was counteracted, among other things, by a lead layer between the shaft and the capital in the pillars of the Löwenhof.

Lead layer between the shaft and the capital in the column of the Alhambra's lion court

In the Sala de los Reyes adjoining the Patio de los Leones , ten people are depicted on a ceiling painting, immediately following the ban on images in Islam . These are interpreted as the first emirs of the Naṣrids, but this theory has not yet been confirmed.

Charles V's palace

  • Charles V Palace, inner courtyard

Parts of the Naṣrid palaces were demolished for the palace of Charles the Fifth . The two-story, almost cubic-looking building built around a circular courtyard in the Renaissance style, which Charles V commissioned in 1527, was never really completed. After centuries of being in ruins, the palace only got a roof in the 20th century. Since 1958 it has housed the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of the Alhambra, among others. At the northeast corner of the palace is an octagonal chapel , which may have been inspired by the Aachen Palatine Chapel , in which Charles V was crowned emperor in 1520.

Reliefs on the west portal show contemporary battle scenes based on Machuca's designs.

The palace city

In the medina of the Alhambra there are mainly gardens and foundations of the original development (workshops, residential areas) as well as various buildings, such as B. a church (Santa María de la Alhambra) and a monastery consecrated to Francis of Assisi , which is now a Parador hotel.

The Generalife

  • Generalife in the evening light / seen from the Parador (2010)

  • Alhambra seen from Generalife

  • Garden and pond area of ​​the Alhambra castle

The summer palace next to the fortress wall was the Ǧanna (t) al-ʿĀrif ('Garden of the Mystic'), from which the Spanish word Generalife became. A path under cypress trees leads to the gardens. In the Palacio de Generalife is the Acequia courtyard with its water features.

The Alhambra as inspiration in art, music and literature

art

The Alhambra was and is a motif both as a background in history painting and as an object of study for architectural details, such as B. for the Düsseldorf architectural painter Adolf Seel . The Spanish history painter Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz painted them in the background for his scene of the Rendición de Granada ( Surrender of Granada , 1882).

music

The first night (= movement ) in the Noches en los jardines de España by Manuel de Falla is called En el Generalife and musically describes the summer palace of the Alhambra. The Etude Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra), composed by Francisco Tárrega in 1896, is considered the tremolo work for classical guitar. The Dutch Dj Martin Garrix released a song called Alhambra with Thomas Newson . Agustín Lara's art song ' Granada ' is now part of the standard repertoire of every tenor.

literature

Since the palace was built, the Alhambra has been the subject of lyrical texts in particular . In the 11th century the Jewish vizier dynasty of the Banū Naghrela built a palace here. The Jewish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol from Málaga speaks in a poem of this palace, a predecessor of today's palaces, which has not survived. The palaces of the Naṣrids, built in the 13th century, are decorated with verses by the poet Ibn Zamrak (14th century). These have also recently been set to music.

In the 19th century, it was primarily the artists of the Romantic period who showed interest in the Alhambra. François-René de Chateaubriand describes his visit to the Alhambra in his Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem , published in 1811 , and in Les aventures du dernier Abencérage (1826) he underlines the importance of the Alhambra as a symbol of oriental influences on European culture. Heinrich Heine settled his play Almansor (1823) in Granada shortly after it was handed over to the Catholic Kings. Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra , the first edition of which appeared in 1832, found the most widespread literary reception . Irving was inspired for the book by his stay in the abandoned walls.

From the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca , who was murdered in 1936, a drawing of the Alhambra has been preserved in a letter to his friend “Zalamea”. But also in his poems (e.g. Granada ) he dealt with the building that dominates the city.

Movie and TV

The film 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise (1992) switched to the Reales Alcázares in Seville for the interior scenes in the Alhambra . In contrast, the Granada fortress in Sindbad's seventh voyage (1958) represented the caliph's palace in Baghdad . The Spanish-Italian television series The Lions of the Alhambra ( Réquiem por Granada, 1991) was partly filmed on original locations.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alhambra  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Alhambra  Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bossong, Georg .: The Moorish Spain: History and Culture . Orig.-issued edition. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55488-9 , pp. 118 .
  2. ^ Robert Pocklington: La etimología del topónimo Granada. In: Al-Qantara, 9: 2 (1988), pp. 380-401.
  3. ^ Frederick P. Bargebuhr: The Alhambra Palace of the Eleventh Century. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 19, 1956, 3/4, pp. 192-258.
  4. ↑ Abdallāh, Cap. II, § 10, fol. 8a - 9a.
  5. ↑ Jens Kröger: Alhambra Dome (2012). Museum With No Frontiers - Discover Islamic Art .
  6. ↑ Jesús Bermúdez López, Pedro Galera Andreu: The Alhambra and the Generalife. Official guide. Editorial Camores, Granada n.d., ISBN 84-8151-853-0 , p. 123.

Coordinates: 37 ° 10 ′ 37 "  N , 3 ° 35 ′ 41"  W.