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| The Alhambra |
After a wonderful day in Cordoba, the Meany Theater tour group, with Tony Geist, Chair Emeritus of the UW Spanish Department, at the helm, headed for Granada where we had a wonderful tour of the Alhambra led by University of Granada professor Domingo Sanchez Mesa. I particularly enjoyed Domingo's ability to read to us some of the Arabic texts that are always mixed in with the geometric designs of the Alhambra.
So many of you have visited the three major cities on this tour -- Cordoba, Granada and Sevilla -- that I hesitate to add my inadequate descriptions to your own treasured memories. But I love these places because of their testament to the integration of three great religious cultures and the consequences when things fell apart after 1492, consequences from which we suffer up until today. So here goes with my own personal take on these great treasures.
Visiting this fortress-like structure today with its beautiful open air rooms and gardens that are so serene, it is easy to forget how tempestuous was the era in which the Moors ruled this last tiny bit of Spain. All of the last nine Muslim rulers except the one who surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella died as a result of war or family conflict. Indeed, there is a set of apartments here in which the eldest son (i.e. the one most likely to try to seize his father's throne) was kept a virtual prisoner.
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Interior Courtyard
Palace of King Charles V
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It was one of the Emir of Granada's conditions for surrender that the Alhambra be left intact. For reasons unknown, the rulers of Spain did so. But their grandson, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, constructed a huge palace designed by an Italian architect right in front of the Alhambra and up against the wall. It is, of course, a total eye sore except for the remarkable round courtyard in the center of an otherwise overdone, Florentine-style brown stone palace.
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| Plaster detail |
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| Interior detail, Alhambra Palace |
The walks and gardens of the Alhambra seem modest in comparison to Charles V's great palace, but their delicacy is breathtaking. Of course, like most of the Christian cathedrals we see in Europe today, the elaborate geometrical plaster carvings would have been painted in the heyday of Muslim rule. Now they are mostly plain but the photo on the left gives an impression of what the people of that era might have seen within the palace walls.
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| Lion Fountain |
The use of water, flowing in great quantity off the Sierra Nevada mountains just above Cordoba, in the design of gardens and courtyards such as the one below is indeed impressive. The most famous, of course, is the fountain of the lions. When Lloyd and I were here in the early 2000s, it was still possible to wander freely through that courtyard, but now the number of visitors must be truly astronomical and the center is cordoned off as tourists file around the cloister (what an odd word to use, as it is usually associated with monastic houses, but it is the only one I can think of). This second visit did not disappoint. The Alhambra is a treasure everyone should see.
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| Lorca family home |
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| Lorca Portrait |
But the Alhambra is not Granada's only treasure. It is also the family home of the famous twentieth century Spanish poet and playwright Garcia Lorca. The house is now a museum and we visited it on our second day in the city. Lorca was liberal, gay and from a wealthy family. He was killed in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War at the age of 38. There is a wonderful portrait of him in the house, which contains many original furnishings as well as beautiful art books combining his poetry with the work of various Spanish artists.
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Reading Lorca
(Tony on right) |
After touring the house, we sat in the beautiful garden for a reading of Lorca's poetry, first in Spanish by a member of the University of Granada and then the English translation (several of them his own) by Tony Geist. A beautiful moment.
The use of water, flowing in great quantity off the Sierra Nevada mountains just above Cordoba, in the design of gardens and courtyards such as the one below is indeed impressive. The most famous, of course, is the fountain of the lions. When Lloyd and I were here in the early 2000s, it was still possible to wander freely through that courtyard, but now the number of visitors must be truly astronomical and the center is cordoned off as tourists file around the cloister (what an odd word to use, as it is usually associated with monastic houses, but it is the only one I can think of). This second visit did not disappoint. The Alhambra is a treasure everyone should see.
