The City of Pomegranates

Granada is a beautiful city in southern Spain. It has an amazing mix of cultures which gives it very cool architectural and design elements. There are lots of arabic elements found in the architecture; big arches, arabic script, mosaic tiles. These all blend together with the European facades and Spanish style roofs. 

I love the details around the windows and on the lamp in the picture to the left. Same with the picture above. The tiling around the arches and the pattern in the window pane is very interesting. 

I wish the front door of my house looked like this.

"In 1238, Ibn al-Ahmar rose up against Ibn Hud and conquered parts of the province of Granada. He established the kingdom of Granada, which extended from the mountains of Sierra Nevada to Gibraltar and which was originally made up of the province of Granada (where he set up his court), the provinces of Malaga and Almeria, and part of the provinces of Cordoba, Jaen, Sevilla, and Cadiz." http://granadamap.com/history.htm

Granada was ruled by the Moors (Berber and Arabic peoples from North Africa. They believed in Islam and conquered much of the Iberian peninsula, the term Moor was used by Europeans to describe the people, not one they used to describe themselves) beginning in the early 700s during the Ummayyid dynasty which was an important portion of Islamic history. The Moors had control of Granada until Ferdinand and Isabella took over in 1492, the same year that Isabella approved Christopher Columbus' adventure in the Americas. This was the height of Spanish power. Isabella and Ferdinand united all of Spain and moved to Granada. 

In order to conquer an area, the rulers had to convince the people that a new way of life was better than the old. They outlawed the old religions, in this case Islam and Judaism, and forced people to convert. The tore down old religious buildings and built new ones. Many of the churches in Granada were originally Mosques. 

This church in the Placeta de San Nicholaus was originally a Mosque. Converting these building was fairly easy. The minarets were used to give the call to prayer 5 times a day for Muslims. Since they were tall and already had good acoustics they were easily transformed into bell towers for Catholic churches.

There is currently only one Mosque in Granada and it has been built just recently. Change is very slow and it has only been about 500 years since the conquest. In United States history, 500 years is a very long time, but in Europe and the Middle East it is barely any time at all. 

When Isabella and Ferdinand took over, they tore down one of the main mosques and built a massive cathedral. Everything is personalized for the king and queen. Their initials can be seen on the pews and the columns and on adornmants outside the cathedral. The Cathedral has a very different design than most Catholic cathedrals. The building is shaped like a cross. The top of the cross, or the head, is a large circular shaped area that contains the alter on the inside. A large pathway goes around and is separated from the alter by a series of arches.  The center line of the cross makes up the congregational area. This was very innovative for its time because usually there was a separation for the nobles and the lower classes. There would be a wall dividing them so the lower classes were unable to see the alter. This cathedral has no separation so all were able to see. Along the sides are a series of small chapel areas that noble families could buy. They then filled them with expensive and ornate religious objects for all to see. They were able to bury their dead in these chapels and mostly show off their wealth. 

In this picture you can see the circular shape of the Cathedral.

This is one of the old entrances to the Cathedral. These doors are no longer used. 

Granda means pomegranate in Spanish and the city is covered in them. Pomegranates are featured in most of the architectural designs and patterns in the tiles and the sidewalks. It's become a game to spot the pomegranates.