Short description of the monument
13th - 14th centuries
This hall or lounge of the Alhambra, was the symbolic center of the “nazarie” power, which is evident in the refinement and splendour of the decoration. It is a quadrangular shaped room located inside the “Comares” tower. It is the most spacious room where the monarch held audiences in front of the grandees of the kingdom: Viziers, Ulemas, the Lord Major and the captains. It was also where the receptions of envoys and other people of high standing took place.
History of the monument
This is the most majestic room of the Alhambra, where the throne was placed and the official receptions where held.
The room communicates with the “Barca” hall by a double arch. It is a square room with a very high ceiling, 11,30 meters on each side and 18,20 meters high. The pavement was originally of marble slabs, but nowadays it has mud slabs. At the center the shield of the “Alamares” still remains, made with tiles of the 16th century. Each wall has three arches (being the central arch the biggest) that give onto three niche-like balconies opened in the thick wall (2,5 meters thick), the central balcony has a twin arch and two little lattice windows on top, the lateral balconies have one big arch.
This lounge or room has decorative inscriptions all over, on the arches, the walls, the “taqa” or niches, the balconies, etc. The inscriptions are poems, praises to God, to the Emir, the nazarie motto and texts of the Koran, like the one we find at the central chamber or the throne room, located on the “al-ifriz” of the arch (Arab architectural decorative element consisting on a moulding that frames the opening of an arch and that starts at the imposts. Like a hoodmould), which, according to the translation from “Echevarría”, reads:
« Help me God stonner of the devil.
In the name of God who is merciful and has mercy.
Be, God, with our Lord Mahomet and his generation, accompaniment and salvation.
And say: my help of God’s rage and of the devil that permits breakage of hell;
And save me from evilness of the jealous when he is jealous
And no other divinity lives than God’s to whom eternally praise
The praise to the God of the centuries.»
The central chamber is the most richly decorated. Next to the previous inscription on the “al-ifriz” of the arch, we find a panelled ceiling embellished with bow motifs covering the interior of the room, which is surrounded with a tiled socle and plasterworks adornments.
The socle is made of glazed tiles which make different geometric figures, and over it we can admire a beautifully decorated wall based on “al-tawriq” (vegetal ornamental motif, characteristic of the Arab decoration), combining harmoniously geometrical with vegetal elements, finished off with a cornice embellished with painted “muqarbas” (decorative motif based on vertically juxtaposed bows or prisms). According to “Fernández-Puertas,” the ceiling represents the Seven Heavens of the Islamic Paradise, with the throne of God located on the eighth heaven, represented by the central cube of “muqarbas” and the four trees of life located on the diagonals. The cupola is a masterpiece of Nazarie carpentry, it consists of cedar wooden panels embellished with bow motifs, a big cube decorated with “muqarbas” in the middle, splashed by multitude of stars painted in a way that they look like silver, mother-of-pearl and ivory.
This distribution did not only provide a fresh enviroment, since most of the space was in semi darkness, but it also created effects of intense illumination concentrated on the throne, when the sun light came in.
Bibliography
• “Granada en tus manos. Alhambra y Generalife”. Author: Carlos Vílchez Vílchez. Ideal – 2006.
Web sites:
• http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/recursos_informaticos/andared01/alhambra/
comares/saloncomares.htm
• http://www.alhambradegranada.org/historia/alhambraSEmbajadores.asp
• http://www.legadoandalusi.es/legado/contenido/rutas/obras/28076.htm
|
