Short description of the monument
The “Infantas” Tower-Palace is located at the east wall, between the towers “Cautiva” and “Cabo de la Carrera”. It is a building with two floors crossed by a moat and the rampart. The access to this tower is through a passage with a vault decorated with “muqarbas” (decorative motif characteristic of the Moslem architecture, based on vertically juxtaposed bows or prisms), and painted imitating bricks, which is unique in the Alhambra. This passage leads to a central rectangular room, very much like a courtyard, which has openings on the smaller sides. Over this room there is a lantern embellished with “muqarbas”. All round this central room, there are windows, that give out onto the exterior, situated at three lateral rooms, narrow and rectangular. Of this three rooms, the one that is parallel to the defensive wall, is the biggest and has scalloped arches that allow the light into the alcoves.
History of the monument
This tower is the best kept of all of them and it is a good example of an “andalusian” dwelling with all its comforts. It is a small palace with benches at the entrance for the eunuchs, an interior courtyard with alcoves, the entrance at an angle, a fountain in the middle, windows looking onto the landscape (in this case onto the Generalife), an upper floor for the women and a terrace on top. The ceiling was decorated with “muqarbas” but it disappeared after an earthquake. At the entrance there was a curious vault.
At this small palace we find a reference to know how the Arab aristocratic houses were. In the 16th century this tower was called “Ruiz and Quintarnaya”, because this was the name of the owner. From the 17th century, it was named after the legend created by Washington Irving about three princesses Zaida, Zoraida and Zorahaida. According to “Torres Balbás” the decoration in this tower is the most modern of the Alhambra, but it shows the declining of the “nazarie” art, with poor and repeated motifs.
Outstanding: Its design and the architectural distribution of its interiors.
Contrasts: the plain exterior and the interior richness. The “Infantas” Tower, is one of the most significative examples of the surprising contrast between the exterior moderation and the rich architecture and decoration of its interior. Starting from the simple exterior volume, with a flat wall, interrupted only by the windows, its interior volume is very complex, with the distribution of the spaces and the richness of the decoration based on tiles, plasterworks and embellished ceilings. Although the interior space is small, the decoration is really astonishing, with a very complex architectural design. It is an example of the great ability of the “nazarie” architecture, to gain as much inner space as possible.
After entering the building, through a passage built in three turns, covered with a small vault embellished with red painted “muqarbas”, we find the interior with a central room or courtyard surrounded by other rooms or alcoves with windows giving onto the exterior. There is a modern fountain in the center of this courtyard, as well as a wooden cupola that covers it and that substitutes a possibly previous vault adorned with “muqarbas”. The upper rooms are also distributed around the courtyard.
«¡You that are comening in, for goodness sake stop, contemplate all that shows perfect and strange beauty!
Delight your eyes in my beauty; wooden smells are blown to us.
Plus the grace-you will say, if you are searching for truth you will find it in the dweller not in the house. »
(this poem is carved at the antechamber of the “Infantas” Tower. The translation is by Emilio García Gómez).
Capacity: maximum 25 people
About the tower-palace. The “Infantas” Tower is a clear example of the “qalahurra” (tower-palace) as the “Cautiva” Tower. They are small palaces with the shape of an autonomous tower placed at the curtain walls. This tower is less projected than the others, which has been interpreted as a search for more security.
The towers that were strictly military, were separated from the urban enclosure by the moat that run along the wall. This way, the rampart, which went through the interior room, lined the upper part of the defensive wall with no possible communication with the city. On the contrary, the two towers-palaces avoid this moat by a bridge or arch, while the rampart passes through a lower tunnel to the level of the main floor of the towers. This way, the guards patrolling on the rampart could do it without bothering the residents of these towers.
Unlike the “Cautiva” tower, the “Infantas” Tower is not only placed over the rampart but also over the moat.
Bibliography
• “Granada en tus manos. Alhambra y Generalife”. Author: Carlos Vílchez Vílchez. Ideal – 2006.
Web sites:br>
• http://www.alhambradegranada.org/historia/alhambraTInfantas.asp
• http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/recursos_informaticos/andared01/
alhambra/torres/torinfantas.htm
• http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra#Torre_de_las_Infantas
• http://www.alhambra.org/esp/index.asp?secc=/alhambra/agenda_cultural/espacio_del_mes
• http://www.legadoandalusi.es/legado/contenido/rutas/monumentos/1527.htm |
