Generalife

I'll bet you thought, when you saw the title, "Generalife", that this post was about the homes and gardens of general folks around town. But, as we were, you will likely be surprised to learn that Generalife, located only a short distance outside the Alhambra, is actually a  "get away", a mini palace as it were - kind of a summer place to escape the heat and/or to take a break from a Sultan's duties and responsibilities.

Or, since the Sultans were neither always nor universally loved by their "subjects", this type of place (of which there were apparently several, this being the only one remaining) might, we were told, have served as a refuge during periods of unrest among the common people.

And, since it is only a short distance from the Alhambra, it was quick and easy for the ruler to return to the Alhambra if some urgent matter required his presence.

For us, it was a short walk through lovely gardens (the New Gardens - so called because they were new - in the 20th century) to the Alhambra. The Sultan no doubt passed through similarly beautiful gardens on his way to and from the Alhambra, but it seems unlikely that he walked. But I am ahead of the tour (unlike the actual tour when I was usually lagging behind).

First, Generalife, which was the beginning place of our guided tour - a short walk from the main entrance through green hedges and arches and alongside reflecting ponds and fountains. And, as you will appreciate in later posts, while this is a very nice summer place, it is definitely not the Alhambra.

On the way there were sites providing excellent views of the Alhambra walls and towers on its eastern edge with the white buildings of the Albaicin in the valley to the north (to the right from this vantage point) of the Alhambra. (a bit about the Albaicin later).

Here a view of some of the eastern wall and towers of the Alhambra and, inside the walls, the bell tower of the Church of St. Mary of the Alhambra.

I have no intention of attempting to orient you (or bore you) with details about the Generalife, but will show some photos of what I thought attractive - with a word or two of explanation or relevant stories.

At the top of this photo is a glimpse of the south pavilion of the Water Garden Courtyard, which is in the photo below.

This water garden is below the walking level which, we were told, is done so that the sultan can sit and look out on a sea of the tops of flowering plants and trees. At this time of year it is less colourful than later in the season.

At the far end of the garden is the facade of the north pavilion part of which is shown in a later photo.

I think this is the entry way to the "Polo Patio", or what is also referred to as the "dismounting" patio. It is thought that this is the entry to the buildings and the place where visitors dismounted and left their horses. At the "keystone" area of the arch is a symbol of a key - said to be evidence that this is a royal palace.

This is the Central Mirador (mirador is a viewing location) which provided a view of some of the surrounding country side. I'm not sure exactly where this room is but in the original structure this would perhaps have been the only area from which the outside would have been seen. This principle of mainly looking inward was in keeping with introspective nature of a Muslim courtyard.

The type of decor in this space is also prevalent and I will say a bit more about it later.

The north pavilion at the far end of the water garden has this facade of arches - the centre arch being larger than those on either side. The location and the decor apparently suggest that this is the Sultan's reception room.

This decorative ceiling is in the space just behind the facade in the photo above.

This second courtyard and water garden is called the Cypress Courtyard referring to the ancient cypress tree trunk that remains - we were told how old this remnant is but I can't recall. A bit of the remains of the cypress are visible in the far right of this photo.

Gardens  and fountains like these were extremely important components of the these royal retreats. We are leaving Generalife on the way to the Alhambra and en-route we pass from the upper garden down to the lower or New Gardens.

Here we are now in the lower or New Gardens, which were apparently developed between 1931 and 1959.

On to the Alhambra. Stay tuned - the best is yet to come!

The Alhambra

I have been somewhat frustrated this year with the, until now, unresolved struggle to identify my photography project - my muse and I have been unable to connect, likely because I haven't been listening.

Today we connected and I discovered that my project, photographically and otherwise, has been the Alhambra.

Wall and towers of the Alhambra

Since our first visit to the Alhambra a few years ago, which was abbreviated due to cold and rainy weather, I have hoped to return. So, after we decided to go once more to the city of Granada in Spain, I looked forward to our return visit to the amazing, magical and, in many ways, mysterious Alhambra. And since that visit a couple of weeks ago (when I took over 350 photos in 3 hours!) I have been reading and attempting to understand a bit about the history, architecture and culture of this magnificent and indescribable place.

A garden walkway near a palace

A couple of days ago we were having lunch with some fellow Canadians we met here and when I began extolling the virtues of the Alhambra, one of them asked, "What exactly is the Alhambra?" My explanation was, no doubt, completely inadequate - but, how to explain it? It turns out that many have tried with more or less success. I have found one general description which I like and will paraphrase some of it here to provide those who have neither heard of it nor had the privilege of visiting it, a descriptive glimpse and include some of my photos and comments, telling you way more than you likely want to know.

Though much attention is focussed (for very good reasons, which deserve mention later) on the main palaces of the Muslim Nasrid Dynasty (1237-1491), the Alhambra was more than a palace. It was a complete city, albeit small, with homes, administrative offices, garrisons, mosques, schools, baths, cemeteries, gardens as well as the artisans and builders whose skills created not only beautiful furnishings but the exquisite decorative elements of buildings and gardens.

Table top, music box and backgammon game - replicas

The Alhambra was enclosed by over 2 kilometres of walls and over 30 towers, of which only 22 remain.

Remember to click on any photo to see a larger and better image - use the back button to return to this page.

Wall and tower of the Alhambra

The initial project, built around the 9th century, was the Alcazaba, a fortification located 700 metres above sea level on a hillside composed of detritus from the Sierra Nevada mountains. During the 14th and 15th centuries, the latter part of the period during which the Moors ruled in this part of the Iberian peninsula (from 711 to late 15th century), the Sultans, occasionally in collaboration with Christian "experts", envisioned and initiated the construction of the palaces and associated structures which comprised the Alhambra in the 15th century.

After Granada was reconquered by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the Christians began adding their own contributions to the Alhambra with modifications and reconstructions continuing even to the present day. So, the Alhambra was not planned entirely from the start; it grew gradually over the centuries from the original fortress, the Alcazaba, increasing in splendour over the years.

View of Sierra Nevada Mountains from inside Alhamra

The designers used location and orientation as well as incorporating architectural and engineering principles to create an environment of both beauty and functionality. This included such things as harmonious use of structure, artistry and light, the arrangement and design of closed and open spaces to provide comfort in varied weather conditions and a highly sophisticated aqueduct system which brought water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, visible from the city, not only for drinking and personal hygiene but for cooling fountains, ritual body cleansing and hygienic toilets.

The main reasons for the compelling interest in the Nasrid palaces are, first, they are quite spectacular and, second, these are the only remaining original buildings of the Muslim Alhambra. And it is considered surprising that they have survived as it seems they were built more for their beauty and their meaning than for endurability, in keeping with Muslim belief in the transitory nature of things.

An archway in the Palace of the Lions

Of course, there were other threats to the survival of the Alhambra - one in the form of Napoleon's plan, at the end of the French occupation of Spain in the 1800's, to destroy it completely. His forces succeeded in destroying the "medina" (the dwellings and shops) but the rest was saved by Jose Garcia who managed to thwart the plan by disarming the explosives that had been set to demolish the whole complex, including the palaces.

The final threat to the Alhambra was abandonment as royalty, the military and officials from Granada, for a variety of reasons, no longer found it useful. Weather, entropy and non paying residents including bandits and all manner of rogues and non rogues who took up residence and had neither the wherewithal nor the interest in maintenance, all contributed to its deterioration and decay.

It seems likely that the French military's intent to reduce the Alhambra to rubble was standard military strategy rather than purely wanton destruction.

Lower gardens of one of the palaces

Washington Irving, in his book Tales of the Alhambra, paints a very positive picture of the French relationship with the Alhambra - "..when Granada was in the hands of the French, the Alhambra was garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was occasionally inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened taste which has ever distinguished the French nation in their conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued from the absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The roofs were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the weather, the gardens cultivated, the watercourses restored, the fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments."

Possibly this contribution by the French and Irving's recounting of it played some role in the recognition of the historical, cultural and architectural importance of the Alhambra and the subsequent investment in the restoration and preservation of this magnificent place which has become, we were told, the most visited monument in Spain - with 300 people passing through the entrance gates every 30 minutes of every day! Well, not during the night.

Leaving the Alhambra on the Royal Street

I said that I would tell much more than you want to know,  and there is much more to come.

The Mosque of Córdoba

When the Moors conquered Córdoba in 785 they began to construct a large Mosque on the site of the Church of St Vincent.

That the Mosque was present in Córdoba, the capital of Al-Andalus (the name of the Muslim territory in the Iberian peninsula), no doubt contributed to it becoming the most important sanctuary of western Islam as the site of religious, social, cultural and political activities.

The original building was divided into the ablutions courtyard and the hall of prayer and, while apparently inspired by the Mosque of Damascus, it is said that there seems to be a Hispanic-Roman influence manifest, for example, in the alternating brick and stone (red and beige) in the arches. If the division into 2 courtyards is still present, we were not able to locate them - but, due to Easter week schedule changes we had only 30 minutes in this very large place, so we could easily have missed much. In any case, I won't make any attempt to describe this amazing building but rather hope the photos will give some impression of the spectacular character of the Mosque.

The main addition in the first expansion of the Mosque was to add a minaret which is now embedded in the tower of the cathedral (yes, I said cathedral about which more in a bit).

The next addition, with contributions from Byzantine artists and architects and a Christian Emperor to the mihrib (a sacred place beside which the imam leads prayer), apparently added such splendour that this Mosque replace the Mosque in Damascus as the "gold standard".

The final expansion was apparently the most extensive but of construction quality in order to control costs - for example, it is said that the alternating colours in the arches build during this expansion are are produced with paint rather than bricks and stones.

Among the unique characteristics of this building is the presence of a Christian cathedral within the confines of this obviously Muslim structure.  When the Christians reconquered Córdoba in 1236 they began a "purification" ceremony that would "turn each stone of the Mosque into a site consecrated to Christ" and dedication of the "cathedral" was celebrated in 1236 with the first eucharistic ceremony taking place below the skylight put in place by Al-Hakam II.

The purpose of the purification ceremony was to "restore the cult that had been interrupted by Islamic domination" and to compensate for the "inconvenience of celebrating Liturgy amid a sea of columns".

The actual construction of the cathedral within the mosque began in 1523. And, it is to the credit of those responsible for decision making that, unlike many Muslim areas reconquered by the Christians, they opted to spare this magnificent structure and make it part of their place of worship.

I have no photos from the cathedral from this visit but there are a few in the blog post from our visit here a few years ago. Click here to check out one of those posts.

Mijas, Spain

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that our trip to Granada and Córdoba was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

So, we had a bit of a surprise this past Sunday morning. I went to the beach at about 6:30am as usual but it started to rain a bit so I headed back to the apartment. I met Ruth outside the hotel and she informed me that our trip to Granada, etc. which we thought was Monday - Wednesday, was actually today through Tuesday! The bus had come and gone, so we had missed the trip :-(

Donkey taxi in Mijas, Spain

As we were trying to figure out how we might catch up with them or take a bus to Granada on our own and meet them there Jean Wheeler came to our place and said the bus was there waiting for us. The bus had actually left to pick up some folks nearby, without informing Ruth, and then returned to get us - hence Ruth's conclusion that we had missed the trip. So we scrambled to get stuff together - a bit of a tizzy you can imagine! We threw stuff into bags, got cameras and associated paraphernalia, etc and, grateful but embarrassed, we joined the 13 Canadians patiently waiting on the bus.

Sunday was a long day on the bus through the eastern Algarve, Portugal, into Spain around Sevilla then east and south to the Costa del Sol (on the Mediterranean) near Torremolinos where our first visit was the small pueblo of Mijas where we spent a few hours. The reason Mijas is on the tour is interesting.

In recent decades the Costa del Sol has become an extremely popular tourist site and, this has led to an enormous influx of people, businesses and money. In the process, all of the characteristic small fishing towns have been swept away and replaced by cities with large modern buildings.

Somehow, the village of Mijas (now an official heritage site), possibly because it is not on the coast, managed to maintain much of the past ambiance of villages in this part of Spain. I say "much" of the ambiance, because the character of the village now, while freshly painted and quite lovely, is a pretty typical tourist town, densely populated with restaurants and small shops selling over-priced goods that seem to appeal to tourists like us :-) - leather, ceramics and donkey taxis seem to be the main attractions.

Sadly, as the tourist numbers are significantly reduced, business is hurting and one has a sense of some desperation in the shops here. We took this same trip a few years ago in a large bus with no empty seats - this year they seem to have reduced the minimum number required for the trip to go as we were on a small bus with 15 people.

And to add to the problem of reduced visitors, the weather this winter has not encouraged touring to places like this.

In any case, we spent a relaxing few hours here in Mijas and contributed a few Euros to the economy before departing for Granada where we arrived shortly after 7 pm.

We checked into our hotel, had a pleasant dinner with a couple from Ottawa then retired hoping that the weather for our visit to the Alhambra the next day would be excellent. (When we were last at the Alhambra a few years ago the visit was marred and abbreviated by a temperature high of 6° C and continuous rain!).

Left are the ruins of an old Muslim fort which has been converted to a chapel dedicated, I think, to Mary.

Leather items seem to be everywhere here and all shops claim that they are definitely selling "leather" - signs claiming "No plastic here!"

Left is a house/home in Mijas.


From Mijas we went to Granada to visit the Alhambra but I have quite a bit to sort out - both photos and comments - for the Alhambra,  so the next post will be about the very large and photogenic Mosque in Córdoba which we visited on Tuesday.

Monica Isabel

We have been back from our three day trip to the Costa del Sol,  Granada (the Alhambra, and the main reason for the adventure) and Córdoba, which we almost missed - more on that later.

The trip was very good and, thankfully, the weather during our day at the Alhambra was excellent! I took over 350 photos at the Alhambra. another 60 or so at the mosque in Córdoba and a few at a small town near the Costa del Sol. So, it will be a couple more days at least before I have photos and info ready for blog posts about the trip.

In the meantime I am posting this bit which I prepared just before we left for Spain.

We are just past the half way point in our time here in Albufeira this year and we are finding our new place better than we thought it would be and certainly better than the weather!

Though we have had some fairly nice periods, so far, this has to be the coolest, windiest, cloudiest and rainiest of our visits to Portugal. Several mornings at the beach the temperature was around 5 or 6° C with daytime highs often around 13 or 14. I think yesterday and today has been the first 2 day period without rain, and the wind, though still with us, is much reduced in velocity. But, with all that, it's warmer than Dundas! And we are happy and fortunate to be able to be here.

Thinking about having been here now for just over 3 weeks it occurs to me that I have provided no information about the place we are in, so this may be a reasonable time.

Above is what the place looks like from the beach.

This is the image one encounters on arrival.

To the right is the hotel "Main" building, where we are living, one floor below the entry way you can see here.

Though smaller than many similar places here in Albufeira, it is quite a bit larger than Club Oceano where we have stayed previously. It appears to have been added on to several times as the floors vary quite a lot and getting around inside can be fairly confusing. To add to the confusion the main building is on the side of a hill so the main entrance is on the 6th floor with 2 floors above and - well 5 below. And the apartments differ significantly - John and Jean have an adequate but quite a small place while ours is large - perhaps 3 times as large as theirs! Rose's place was somewhere in between in size but differed greatly in arrangement - the living area and kitchen were on one floor and the bedroom and bathroom on the floor below - which made it quite inconvenient - for example she had only one phone so had to keep moving it depending on where she was going to be. On the plus side, she had a great ocean view on both levels!

 There are several buildings - a main building (4 star) which is where we are, one or two blocks of 3 star apartments (which are quite small and dreary inside) and a separate building with reception, lobby, bar and wi fi area which, especially in the evenings, is noisy and unpleasant.

There is kind of a patio area outside the lobby building and the main building and it is usually filled with smokers in the evening. As the wi fi area is in the lobby separated from our building we have to go outside to have access to the internet - not terrible but inconvenient, especially when it is raining. And, because TV watching, drinking and chattering is all in the wi fi area, it make internet use in the evening very unsatisfactory - at 6 am there is no one else there, so that is when I go. And as no one else is using their limited band width, it is much faster!

The poor folks in the 3 star area have a bit of a hike to get to their apartments. From this view the 3 star place looks quite reasonable but, as I mentioned, inside the apartments are quite small and rather dingy.

An evening image of the path/road in front of the 3 star "block"/

Unlike our previous place. this one provides an "all inclusive" arrangement with room, meals, drinks, etc. all included in the price - though we are not in this plan!

Next post will be about the trip to Spain.

More Alcazar

I mentioned in the earlier post on Seville that a few more photos of the Alcazar might surface at some point and so they have.

As before, I won't necessarily identify the location of the image in the palace, though in a couple of instances I have.

This, for example, is in the Salon de Embajadores, the Ambassadors Room.

And I have included photos of styles that are not from the Arab/Moorish style (though for me they are the most interesting) to show something of the diversity of architecture that has been added over the centuries.

As I am uncertain of which reflects which style, I leave that for those of you who are more knowledgeable than I about architectural periods/styles.

This is the Patio de las Doncellas - Doncellas refers "maidens". The story is that the Sultan or whoever ruled at the time, demanded a certain number of maidens be contributed from the community to the palace and this is where they lived and lounged.

The image here is the Palacio del Rey Dom Pedro or King Peter, who, it is said preferred to be referred to as Sultan.

Another reflecting pool.

One of the many exquisite ceilings.

We are currently on our trip to Granada where we will have a chance to visit the Alhambra. Our guide on this trip has told me that, while the Alcazar is very beautiful, what we see there today was built, not by the Moors but, by the Christians after they drove the Moors out of the Iberian peninsula. The Alhambra, in contrast, was actually built be the Moors during the period in which they ruled this area. As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of interpretations of the history of the Alcazar, so which is true is not obvious. Whatever is correct, the Alcazar is still an amazing place and worth visiting when you are next in Sevilla!