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A FEW FACTS ABOUT GRANADA
by Lawrence Bohme
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| The Albiacin from the Alhambra Palace. |
Some say that the name Albaicin means "quarter
of the falconers", but most historians prefer "quarter
of the people of Baeza". When the Moors were driven by the
Christians out of the city of Baeza, near Jaen, in the 13th century,
they fled to Granada and re-settled on the northern part of the
hill, creating a suburb which took on the name of their former home.
Most of what we now call Albaicin was in fact the Alcazaba, the
Moorish citadel, stretching from the Colegiata del Salvador to the
Plaza San Miguel Bajo. Only the western wall of this fortress still
exists (it's best seen from the Mirador San Cristobal); the castle
keep stood on what is now the Plaza San Nicolás. It was only
after the fall of Cordoba, in 1236, that the centre of Moorish power
was transferred to Granada - bringing a massive influx of nobles,
architects and money which led to the construction of a fabulous
new castle on the hill across the river valley: the Alhambra, Calat-Al-Hama
or "The Red Castle", so called for its reddish stone.
Although most of the Albaicin's churches are built
on the foundations of Moorish mosques, and many have conserved their
external cisterns for the ritual washing of the faithful, little
remains intact from the 8 centuries of Moorish occupation, apart
from the great city gates (Elvira, Monaita, de las Pesas and half
of Bab-Al-Bonud), the western walls, several interesting minarets-converted-into-bell-towers
(the most precious of which is the Alminar de San José) and
the courtyard of what was once the Albaicin's Great Mosque, now
attached to the church of the Colegiata del Salvador. The story
of this church tells us much about Andalucia's difficult transition
from Islam to Christianity. It was created as a school - colegiata
- to evangelize the Moors, and located in the heart of their medina,
although there was such popular resistance that the priests abandoned
it repeatedly. The inner courtyard, El Patio de los Naranjos, is
one of Granada's finest examples of early (10th century) Moorish
architecture (the courtyard can only be visited when the church
is open for Mass).
The Albaicin is rich in folklore: the Crucifix which
stands in the Plaza San Miguel is called El Cristo de las Lañas
- the Christ of the Clamps, because of the heavy iron clamps which
hold the sections of his broken body together. When the Civil War
broke out in 1936, the Republican (leftist) soldiers smashed the
statue, leaving the local people to hide the fragments each in a
different cellar, until they could be reconstituted after the war.
The name of the Puerta de las Pesas - the Gate of the Weights, which
you must pass through to reach Plaza Larga, is linked to the market
which has for centuries been held in the square (now on Saturday
mornings only). When the king's inspectors detected merchants using
scales with rigged weights, these pesas were hung on spikes on the
wall of the gate. Whatever became of the offending merchants, a
few of the blackened, rusty weights can still be seen on the plaza-side
of the gate.
In Moorish times, the bed of the River Darro was
uncovered all the way from the short stretch which we can now see
at the foot of the Alhambra through Plaza Nueva, Calle Reyes Católicos,
and Acera del Darro; of course, it was crossed by the same sort
of bridges which still grace the Paseo de los Tristes. One of these
bridges connected the Corral del Carbón on the left bank
(a magnificently restored merchant's inn with courtyard) to the
bustling Plaza Bibarrambla. The name of this square (Bib=Gate, Rambla=Strand)
refers to the magnificent city gate which stood near the water's
edge; the long rectangle of the square, like the Campo del Principe
on the left bank of the river, was once a field used for the Moorish
lists, where Moorish noblemen jousted on their Arabian steeds. Later,
it was the scene for the auto-da-fes in which the Inquisition judged,
and summarily burned at the stake, converted Jews accused of continuing
to practice their native religion.
Just north of this square is a tightly-meshed grid
of alleyways decorated with Moorish arches, now containing Granada's
tourist souvenir shops: the Alcaicería. In the Middle Ages
this was the site of the Great Bazaar of Granada, to which merchants
came from all over Islam and Christendom: it stretched right up
to the foot of the Alhambra hill. These bazaars were famous for
their silk (of which Granada was a major producer) since the days
of the Roman Empire; and because Caesar had given the Moors the
exclusive right to sell the precious stuff (in exchange for the
appropriate taxes), to show their gratitude they called all such
bazaars Al-Caicería, literally "Caesar's Place",
in Arabic. But the Alcaicería we see today is a fake - the
real one burned down in the early 19th century. Matches had just
been invented and a shop selling them caught fire in the night,
leaving the entire bazaar in cinders. On a small part of the site,
a pseudo-Moorish imitation - already well the worse for wear - was
built to take its place.
Close by stands La Capilla Real - The Royal Chapel,
the mausoleum of the Catholic Kings Isabel and Ferdinand, who chose
to be buried in Granada because they saw its conquest as the crowning
achievement of their reign (they had no way of knowing that this
would soon prove to be their sponsorship of Columbus' journey).
Isabel of Castille was at heart a woman of the Middle Ages, as illustrated
by her precious collection of Flemish masters on view in the Sacristy.
She wanted a small, humble mausoleum for her and all her descendants,
befitting the follower of Saint Francis which she was. But she died
before the chapel could be built, and spent some twenty years in
a provisional tomb in the Franciscan convent which was built in
the Alhambra in the shell of the palace mosque (and is now an elegant
hotel, the Parador San Francisco, well worth visiting even if you
can't afford to stay there). The architects, out of deference for
her importance rather than her dying wishes, made the chapel larger
and more luxurious than planned, with the result that it is neither
humble nor truly grand; in any case, her successor and grandson
Carlos V - the master of the new Empire which she had founded -
judged it too unassuming for the masters of a reign on which the
sun never set, and the Royal Mausoleum, for all of Spain's subsequent
monarchs, was eventually moved to the blockbuster Escorial Monastery
outside Madrid, built by his son, Felipe II.
It may seem chronologically strange that the Cathedral
itself should have been built in the new Italian Renaissance style,
while the Royal Chapel - of which it is an appendage - is in the
earlier, Gothic style favoured by Queen Isabel. The explanation
is a significant one: immediately after the Reconquest, the "Cathedral"
was first set up inside the Great Mosque, creating the same bizarre
combination we see today in the Mezquita of Cordoba, with its baroque
chapel in the midst of the Moorish colonnades; but long after the
Royal Chapel had been built onto its north wall, the delapidated
mosque-cathedral contraption was torn down and rebuilt in the "new"
Renaissance style.
The above text was kindly provided by Lawrence
Bohme, artist, author and conference intepreter, lives at Cortijo
de los Siete Olivos Montefrio, Granada Province, Spain.
Tel: +34 958 31 01 24. Lawrences
Cottages for Rent
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