Grenada’s remarkable Alhambra is a place that unveils overlapping lives and histories which breathe life into an intercultural dialogue. A place in which history’s flame is kept burning.
The Alhambra—which along with the Albaycín constitutes the medieval part of the city of Granada in Spain—is large and imposing. Yet on a recent visit it was a small doorway, almost overlooked, that unveiled the overlapping lives and histories that work together in this remarkable site to breathe life into a fascinating and even hopeful intercultural dialogue.
The doorway had a simple sign, almost missed due to the shadows from a nearby tree, inviting one into The Mosque Baths of the Alhambra.
Stepping through the small door and allowing time for the eyes to adjust to the darker space, one quickly realizes that we are seeing what another sign describes as “dialogue between cultures over centuries.
A former Nasrid Palace from the final Islamic dynasty to rule in Iberia later became a Franciscan convent, spaces where “new ways of silence, prayer, and living in harmony came into being.” As we wandered through the baths we discovered:
“. . . how time altered each nook and cranny without changing its lifeblood . . . unveiling overlapping lives and histories. The remains of the Nasrid hamman or steam bath, the belltower, and the entrance to the atrium unearthed inside the convent, breathe life into this intercultural dialogue. Each room unearths how the past remains alongside the present, keeping memory alive.”
The Alhambra is so large that it is easy to miss these small hidden gems. An internationally famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, what we may know simply as Alhambra actually includes a fortress, residence, the magnificent gardens of the Generalife, and the former rural residence of the emirs who ruled this part of Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries. It also includes the residential district of the Albaycín—which sits on a facing hill to the palace and gardens and is a “rich repository of Moorish vernacular architecture, into which the traditional Andalusian architecture blends harmoniously.”
The Alhambra has been continuously occupied over time and is currently the only preserved palatine city of the Islamic period. “The Generalife Garden and its vegetable farms represent one of the few remaining medieval areas of agricultural productivity. These palaces were made possible by the existing irrigation engineering and they constitute a real urban system integrating architecture and landscape.” The beauty, scale, and siting of this place, with a backdrop of snowcapped mountains, could take a lifetime to explore.
The last Islamic state in Iberia ended in 1492, but what remains is a rich legacy of Moorish town planning and architecture. “Here Moorish buildings and constructions of Christian tradition coexist harmoniously. Much of its significance lies in the medieval town plan with its narrow streets and small squares and in the relatively modest houses in Moorish and Andalusian style that line them. There are, however, some more imposing reminders of its past prosperity.”
As the UNESCO site reminds us:
“What we see here speaks of the remarkable legacy of Muslim Spain from the 13th through the 15th centuries. It is remarkable that these medieval Islamic examples—even as they adapted to the Christian way of life after the conquest—were not destroyed and haven’t been significantly changed over the centuries.”
Historic places: keeping memory alive.
More to come . . .
DJB
NOTE: This is the first of what will be several posts from our recent National Trust Tours trip to Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, and Portugal. In addition, I have a number of book reviews resulting from the recent Independent Bookstore Crawl and Reading Challenge sitting in the queue. This is just to warn you that the posts may come fast and furious over the next 2-3 weeks. Just read the ones that interest you. I suspect that no one reads them all.
Top panorama of Alhambra by Alexander Psiuk on Unsplash. All other photos by DJB except where credits to UNESCO or Simon Wilkinson via Flickr are noted.
MORE TO COME... 