Palaces and Courts of The Alhambra

Palace of the Lions               
When Mohammed V succeeded his father Yusuf I, he did more than just finishing the alterations that his father had started. He actually started building what would become his great work of art, the marvellous legacy he left us in the Alhambra: the Palace of the Lions (Palacio de los Leones). This palace comprised the private chambers of the royal family and it was built in the angle formed by the Baths (Baños) and the Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes). 

In this palace is where Nasrid art achieved its greatest degree of magnificence. The beauty of this palace shows incomparable sensibility and harmony. Light, water, colours and exquisite decoration turn this palace into a marvellous pleasure for the senses. The abstract and geometric decoration steps back in this palace for a more naturalistic style to dominate, as the result of the Christian influence, which was even stronger due to the friendship between Mohammed V and the Christian king Pedro I.

The palace comprises a central patio surrounded by several galleries with columns in the way a Christian cloister would be. From the central patio you may access the different halls: the Hall of the Mocarabes (Sala de los Mocárabes) to the west, the Hall of the Kings (Sala de los Reyes) to the east, the Hall of the Two Sisters (Sala de Dos Hermanas), the Hall of the Ajimeces (Sala de los Ajimeces) and Daraxa's Mirador (Mirador de Daraxa) to the north and the Hall of the Abencerrajes (Sala de los Abencerrajes) and the Harem (Harén) to the south.

Comares Palace

The Comares Palace or Hall (Cuarto o Palacio de Comares) was the official residence of the king and it comprises several rooms that surrounded the Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes). The rooms have galleries with porticoes at the ends. Some examples are the Hall of the Boat (Sala de la Barca) to the north and the Hall of the Ambassadors (Salón de los Embajadores) inside the Comares Tower (Torre de Comares), from which a view over the valley of the river Darro may be enjoyed. 

Yusuf I wanted his official residence's decoration to amaze the visitor, so he ordered the architects to build it and adorn it in a exquisite way, although he probably did not see the final result, as several inscriptions affirm that his son Mohammed V was responsible for it. Mohammed V finished the works and constructed a façade on the southern side of the Patio of the Golden Room (Patio del Cuarto Dorado). On the façade there are two identical gates with lintels, tiles on a ceramic skirting board and plasterwork decoration. Above it are two twin windows with canted festoon and a smaller one in the middle, surrounded by inscriptions from the Koran. The whole wall is beautifully decorated with ornaments and inscriptions, including the motto «Only God is Victor». One of the poems by Ibn Zamrak is tattooed on the frieze made of carved wood, as in other parts of the Nasrid palaces. 

Court of the Myrtles

The Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes) has received different names throughout time. Its current name is due to the myrtle bushes that surround the central pond and the bright green colour of which contrasts with the white marble of the patio. It was also called the Patio of the Pond or the Reservoir (Patio del Estanque o de la Alberca) because of the central pond, which is 34 metres long and 7.10 meters wide. The pond divides the patio and receives its water from two fountains (one at each end of the pond). There are chambers on both sides of the patio and several porticoes on the shorter sides of it. These porticoes rest on columns with cubic capitals, which have seven semicircular arches decorated with fretwork rhombuses and inscriptions praising God. The central arch is greater than the other six and has solid scallops decorated with stylised vegetal forms and capitals of mocarabes. 

On the ends of the southern gallery are larders with kitchen shelves of mocarabes and the following legend: «May our Master Abu Abd' Allah, emir of the Muslims, receive God's help and protection as well as a glorious victory». Most inscriptions that appear in this patio are praises to God or to the emir. The chambers that existed in this portico were partly demolished in order to build the Charles V Palace (Palacio de Carlos V). On the top floor, on a corridor, there is a six-arched gallery with a higher lintel in the centre. This gallery is decorated with wooden terraced bases covered with stylised vegetal forms and latticework from the 19th century. 

As it has already been said, several chambers have disappeared, but certain signs of their existence have been found. The disappearance of these chambers has contributed to the popular belief of the legend that says that Charles V destroyed the winter palace of the Alhambra in order to build his own. However, several experts, although in disagreement about the content of these chambers, do agree on the lack of signs to determine the existence of the winter palace. 

The lateral sections were the women's residence. On the ground floor several doors connect (or used to connect) with other chambers. The patio's decoration in this gallery, except for the tile skirting board, was redone during the 19th century, copying that of the opposite portico.

On the top part of the northern gallery, behind which the Comares Tower (Torre de Comares) stood, there is a parapet with two little lateral towers, which were remade in 1890 because this gallery's and the following hall's ceiling burned. The gallery's ends have larders with arches, domes and kitchen shelves of mocarabes, on a skirting board covered with tiles from the 16th century. On the top of the skirting board there is an inscription from a poem by Ibn Zamrak in honour of Mohammed V after Algeciras was conquered in 1368.

Patio of the Lions

The Patio of the Lions (Patio de los Leones) is probably the most famous place of the Alhambra. It is so called because of the twelve lions that throw jets of water and which are part of the fountain in the middle of the patio. The big dodecagon-shaped basin rests on top of these twelve lions that are around it. This white marble fountain is one of the most important examples of Muslim sculpture. A poem by Ibn Zamrak was carved on the border of the basin. At the beginning of the 17th century another basin was added and is currently in the Garden of the Ramparts (Jardín de los Adarves), as well as the jet, which was done later, as indicated in the engraving.

This patio was built by order of Mohammed V, its ground plan is rectangular and it is surrounded by a gallery in the style of a Christian cloister. It does not follow the typical Muslim Andalusian patio style, more like the Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes). The gallery is supported by 124 white marble columns with fine shafts, which are decorated on the exterior side with many rings and which support cubic capitals and big abacuses, decorated with inscriptions and stylised vegetal forms. Under the wood carving frieze there are plaster arches, except for those of the pavilions and the ends of the longer sides of the galleries, which are of mocarabes, with scallops decorated with rhombus-shaped carvings. At the middle of each of the two longer sides of the patio there is a semicircular arch bigger than the rest of the arches and with archivolts of mocarabes and scallops decorated with styled vegetal forms. These arches lead to the Hall of the Abencerrajes (Sala de los Abencerrajes) and with the Hall of the Two Sisters (Sala de Dos Hermanas). The chambers where the sultan's wives lived are over the arches. At the middle of each of the shorter sides there is a pavilion, built on part of the patio. The pavilions' ground plan is square and they are covered with semispherical domes with a wooden interior. 

In the centre of the patio there was a low garden and the galleries' floor is made out of white marble. The garden went through many alterations over the years and it has now been eliminated in order to avoid the dampness it may cause. There are white marble channels, which start inside the pavilions and inside the halls of the two other sides and which get together at the central fountain forming a cross. On the ends of the channels there are jets that send water to the central fountain.