Granada and the Alhambra / A brief description of the ancient city of Granada, with a particular account of the Moorish palace

by Albert Frederick Calvert

In the city of Granada itself the memorials of the Moorish domination are scanty and fast disappearing. In the Zacatin, which was in old times the chief bazaar, is a building formerly styled the Casa del Gallo de Viento (Weathercock House), and now known by the commonplace designation of Casa del Carbon (Charcoal House), owing to its having been appropriated to the storage of that useful product. Tradition avers that the palace (for such the house at one time was) was built by Badis Ibn Habus, a governor of Granada, who ruled about 1070 A.D., by whose direction a vane was made in the shape of a warrior, mounted and armed with shield and spear. In later years the building served as a corn exchange. The only notable features are the entrance with its horseshoe arch and twin-windows, and vestibule with dome and alcoves. Adjacent to the Casa del Carbon is the house of the Duque de Abrantes. Beneath it is said to be a subterranean passage communicating with the Alhambra—blocked up, oddly enough, by the present owner of the site, without any exploration or examination.

Entered from the Carrera de Darro is the once handsome Moorish bath house, now in the last stages of dilapidation and neglect. It is believed to date from the earliest period of Mohammedan rule. The arches are of the old horseshoe type, and the columns and capitals of a primitive order. An inscription beginning, “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate ...” may still be made out.

The bath itself, the various chambers of repose and disrobing, the usual alhamies, can also be traced.

The old Moorish mint was demolished in 1643, and the famous Gate of Bivarrambla can no longer be described in any sense as a Mohammedan work.

The effacement of the Moorish character of Granada, as compared with its survival in Seville, serves to show how much more intense the religious and racial bias became in Spain during the two hundred and odd years that elapsed between the conquests of the two cities. The spirit in which St. Ferdinand, Alfonso el Sabio, and Pedro I. approached the works of their Mohammedan foes and subjects presented a very favourable contrast to that manifested by the Catholic sovereigns, Charles V. and Philip II.

CATHOLIC GRANADA

Almost the first act performed by a Spanish king on his entry into a conquered Mohammedan city was to convert the chief mosque (aljama) into a Christian church. This was also done at Granada, but the chapel of the Alhambra remained for some time the cathedral of the new See. The mosque in the city, afterwards elevated to that rank, is described by the Abbé Bertaut of Rouen (quoted by Valladar), writing in 1669, as “square, or rather longer than wide, without vaults, and the roof covered with tiles, which for the most part were not even joined. The whole was supported by a number of small stone columns, harmoniously arranged.” Jorquera says the mosque was composed of five low naves. Whether or not it was originally a Visigothic church, as some writers pretend, the temple probably dated from the earliest centuries of the Muslim occupation, and the tower which contained the mihrab was long famous as the Torre Turpiana.

The building, after serving the purposes of the Catholic rite for two centuries, disappeared between 1705 and 1759 to make room for the present sacristia (sacristy). As a cathedral, it had been superseded by the adjoining and existing edifice, dedicated on August 17, 1561.

Older by about a quarter of a century than the foundations of the cathedral is the Royal Chapel (Capilla Real), which is the most striking and interesting memorial of the Conquest of Granada. It was begun in 1505 as a mausoleum for the Catholic sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, under the direction of the famous Enrique Egas, and completed in the year 1517—a year after the king’s death and thirteen years after the queen’s. The chapel is shaped like a Latin cross, and is one of the latest specimens of the Spanish Gothic style. It is a comparatively modest and simple building, contrasting strongly with the ornate and elaborate structures of the succeeding age. The decoration of the interior consists almost entirely in a frieze bearing a long inscription in gilt letters which reads: “This chapel was ordered to be built by the most Catholic Don Ferdinand and Doña Isabella,” &c. &c. There is a suggestion of Gothic influence in the magnificent railing or grille, partly of iron, partly gilt, which divides the nave from the transept, and was made in 1522 by Maestre Bartolome. The kneeling figures of the Catholic sovereigns are seen on either side of the high altar. These, says Ford, “are very remarkable, being exact representations of their faces, forms, and costumes: behind Ferdinand is the victorious banner of Castile, while the absorbing policy for which both lived and died—the conquest of the Moor and the conversion of the infidel—are embodied beneath them in singular painted carvings; these have been attributed to Felipe Vigarny, and are certainly of the highest antiquarian interest. In that which illustrates the surrender of the Alhambra, Isabel is represented riding on a white palfrey between Ferdinand and the great Cardinal Mendoza, who sits on his trapped mule, like Wolsey. He alone wears gloves; his pinched aquiline face contrasts with the chubbiness of the king and queen. He opens his hand to receive the key, which the dismounted Boabdil presents, holding it by the wards. Behind are ladies, knights, and halberdiers, while captives come out of the gates in pairs. Few things of the kind in Spain are more interesting. The other basso-relievo records the ‘Conversion of the Infidel’; in it the reluctant flock is represented as undergoing the ceremony of wholesale baptism, the principal actors being shorn monks. The mufflers and leg-wrappers of the women—the Roman fasciæ—are precisely those still worn at Tetuan by their descendants.”

These reliefs are unquestionably more vigorous and artistic, and also more in harmony with the structure generally, than the gorgeous Renaissance cenotaphs of Ferdinand and Isabella—most probably the work of the Spanish sculptor, Bartolome Ordoñez. The two great sovereigns are shown lying side by side, the faces expressing infinite dignity and repose. At each corner of the sepulchre is seated one of the four Doctors of the Church, below whom is a Sphinx. Medallions on two of the four sides represent respectively the Baptism and Resurrection of Jesus, and St. George and St. James. Beautifully done are the figures of the Twelve Apostles, the escutcheons, and, in fact, all the details of this grandiose but unimpressive monument.