Azenhas Do Mar

The Alhambra Palace, Spain’s most visited monuments in 2010 is enthralling. For those who have read Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra it doesn’t take much for the imagination to run riot. Irving’s stay in Granada and particular in The Alhambra itself during the 1820s was where he wrote much of the book, and the publication of the book is thought to have been the salvation of the monument.

The Spanish government declared The Alhambra a national monument in 1870 after the huge interest it gained from Washington Irving and other romantic writers of the era, such as Richard Ford.

Granada is a city set amidst green and fertile land, the product of the melting snows of the Sierra Nevadas. The old city is magical, especially at night, take a walk in the early evening up to Mirador San Nicolas and watch the incredible sunset as the lights of the Alhambra come alive, a more romantic and fairytale setting is hard to find. The former US president Bill Clinton described it as the most beautiful view in Spain.

Set high above Granada, the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada looming behind, the fortress towers dramatically over the city. The name Alhambra, comes from the Arabic meaning red castle, and has been a fortress from the 9th century. In the 13th and 14th century The Nasrids added the palace and a small city which doesn’t exist today.

Francisco de Asis de Icaza wrote

“Give him alms, woman. For there is nothing in life so cruel as to be blind in Granada.”

In 1492 The Catholic Monarchs gained control of Granada, the final stronghold in the reconquest and moved into The Alhambra Palace.Carlos I then had part of the Nazaries Palace removed to make room for a huge granite Renaissance Palace which anywhere else might have been the most famous Renaissance buildings from his reign. Here in the The Alhambra and dominating the Moorish palace it’s a misfit.

By the 18th century the Alhambra was abandoned, and used only by vagabonds until the Napoleonic occupation when it became barracks to his troops, a store for ammunition and a pen for goats.

Looting and pointless destruction by the French troops nearly put an end to The Alhambra, but thanks to their hasty retreat their planned destruction wasn’t total.

What we see today is major restoration work and how near it is to the original, we’ll never know. Our thanks to Washington Irving, the hasty French retreat and the Spanish governments timely acknowledgment can never be fully realised.