The Alijares Palace (Qaṣr al-Dishār) at the Alhambra: a bioclimatic analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the main bioclimatic features of three of the most representative palaces in the Alhambra: Comares, Lions and, in particular, the Alijares Palace (Qaṣr al-Dishār). Bioclimatic features in medieval architecture were often shaped through contact with earlier models – in the case of Naṣrid architecture (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries), through the Andalusi tradition. Control of climatic factors in a building, and the provision of additional protection to its inhabitants, might be achieved by means of walls of rammed earth, adobe, bricks or stone; other important features include orientation, the size of rooms, the use of shade, distribution of air from the exterior to the courtyard, ventilation and natural cooling.

KEYWORDS:

• Alhambra Palace
• Qaṣr al-Dishār
• Alijares
• Naṣrid dynasty
• environmental architecture

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Proyectos del Plan Nacional I+D+i (Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica) entitled “Ciudades nazaríes: estructura urbana, sistema defensivo y suministro de agua” (HAR2011-30293), directed by Dr Antonio Orihuela Uzal, and “La arquitectura residencial de al-Andalus: análisis tipológico, contexto urbano y sociológico. Bases para la intervención patrimonial” (HAR2011-29963), directed by Dr Julio Navarro Palazón.

Notes on contributor

Luis José García-Pulido (Úbeda, Spain) has a Doctorate in Architecture and is Master in “Archaeology and Territory” from the University of Granada, and also Master’s in “Architecture and Cultural Heritage” from the University of Seville. He is currently Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Architecture at the University of Málaga. He is part of the research group “Laboratory of Archaeology and Architecture of the City” (LAAC, Hum-104, EEA, CSIC) and research associate to laboratory TRACES (Travaux et Recherches Archaeologiques sur les Cultures), CNRS-University of Toulouse 2-Le Mirail. He develops historical researches on architecture, urban planning, territories and cultural landscapes, medieval and ancient hydraulic systems and devices, standing buildings archaeology, Architectural Heritage documentation and restoration.

Notes

¹Yáñez Parareda, Energía solar, 83–84.

²Almagro Gorbea and Orihuela Uzal, “De la casa andalusí”, 51–70; Orihuela Uzal, “The Andalusi House”, 169–91.

³Lamb, “The Early Medieval Warm Epoch”, 131.

⁴Orihuela Uzal, Casas y palacios nazaríes, 19–40.

⁵Torres Balbás, “Los braseros de la Alhambra”, 389–90; Fernández Puertas, “Braseros hispanomusulmanes”, 77–86.

⁶Vílchez Vílchez, “Los restos conservados”, 317–40; Higuera Rodríguez and Morales Delgado, “La almunia de los Alijares”, 31–48; Fernández Puertas, “El Alcázar al-Dišār”, 113–28; Velázquez Basanta, “El Alcázar del Nayd”, 309–25.

⁷Fernández Puertas, “La Alhambra”, 98–125; Dickie, “The Palaces of the Alhambra”, 135–51.

⁸It was compared to the Sassanid Khosrau II Palace in Ctesiphon and its Iwans in a poem by the aulic poet Ibn Zamrak; the poem itself was carved in epigraphy on the timber frieze which stands in the southest qubba, the first that one saw upon entering the palace (poem 276, verse 4).

⁹Although the word qubba normally refers to a dome, tomb, or ritual space off the central hall, in al-Andalus this word is also related to a thick-walled regal tower, generally with a quadrangular shape and covered internally by a dome that is not usually visible from the outside. See Ragette, Traditional Domestic Architecture, 289.

¹⁰García-Pulido, El territorio de la Alhambra, 198–236.

¹¹Ibn ‘Āṣim, Junnat al-riḍā fi al-taslīm li-mā qaddara Allāh wa-qaḍà, 24. For its initial study we have used both translations into Spanish by Alicia de la Higuera Rodríguez; the first one contained in her doctoral dissertation (1997), and the second one published together with Antonio Morales Delgado (1999, 33–37). The rereading of this Arabic source in poetic prose has been done in collaboration with the philologist Naima Anahnah Boutzaght, checking and translating the text without losing sight of the architectural vocabulary. Only from this perspective is it possible to interpret the rhetorical figures that appear in the Arabic text, as well as the words of broad and confusing meaning that can lead to unintelligible descriptions.

¹²Almagro Gorbea, Palacios medievales hispánicos, 44; Navarro Palazón and Jiménez Castillo, “El castillejo de Monteagudo”, 63–104.

¹³Almagro Gorbea, Palacios medievales hispánicos, 46–50.

¹⁴Escribano Ucelay, Estudio histórico artístico; Almagro Gorbea, Palacios medievales hispánicos, 70–71.

¹⁵Navarro Palazón, “El Alcázar Real de Guadalajara”, 583–613; Almagro Gorbea, Palacios medievales hispánicos, 72–76.

¹⁶Almagro Gorbea, Palacios medievales hispánicos, 73–92; Almagro Gorbea, “Los palacios de tradición andalusí”, 245–81.

¹⁷Almagro Gorbea, “Análisis arqueológico”.

¹⁸Ibn ‘Āṣim, Junnat al-riḍā fi al-taslīm li-mā qaddara Allāh wa-qaḍà, 25.

¹⁹Ibn ‘Āṣim, Junnat al-riḍā fi al-taslīm li-mā qaddara Allāh wa-qaḍà, 28–29.

²⁰García-Pulido, El territorio de la Alhambra, 233–36.

²¹Jiménez Alcalá, “Aspectos bioclimáticos,” 13–29; Jiménez Alcalá, Environmental Aspects, 63–84.

²²See Eguaras Ibáñez, Ibn Luyūn: Tratado de Agricultura, 272–73.

²³For example, the Comares Palace, Lions Palace, Generalife Palace, qubba of the ex-Convent of San Francisco Palace, High and Low Partal palaces, Secano Palace, Dār al-Horra, House of Lorenzo el Chapiz, House of Zafra, or the houses on Calle del Oro and Covertizo de Santa Inés.

²⁴Jiménez Alcalá, “Aspectos bioclimáticos”, 27; Jiménez Alcalá, “Environmental performance”, 229–30; Willmert, “Alhambra Palace Architecture”, 162–67.

²⁵Jiménez Alcalá, “Aspectos bioclimáticos”, 16–18; Jiménez Alcalá, Environmental Aspects, 76–80.

²⁶Argirion and Santamouris, “Heat Gains Control and Passive Cooling”.

²⁷Ayuntamiento de Granada. Archivo Municipal de Granada. Antonio Almagro Cárdenas, Francisco de Paula Valladar, Gerónimo Muñoz and Francisco de Góngora. Restos del palacio árabe de los Alixares hallados en la última ampliación del cementerio público. 1891, Legajo 2114, f. 3r/v.

²⁸These were small holes, present only in Naṣrid architecture, that reproduced the shape of a miḥrāb in doorjambs, under the arch of a gate, where a water jug would be placed. Its purpose was symbolic, not religious. In the best examples they reproduced the classic elements of a Naṣrid arch (as its name in Arabic shows), and were highly decorated and framed by a poem.

²⁹Higuera Rodríguez and Morales Delgado have argued that this building could have had a major role in the Sufi religious practices followed by Muḥammad V, so the final orientation of this palace could also have been defined by this faith. Higuera Rodríguez and Morales Delgado, “La almunia de los Alijares”, 44–46.

³⁰Salmerón Escobar, “Historia de una restauración”, 11.

³¹After the Christian conquest of Granada, the territory that comprises both munya-s was incorporated into one agricultural estate called “Pago de los Alijares y del Cerro de Santa Elena”.

³²Higuera Rodríguez and Morales Delgado, “La almunia de los Alijares”, 37–38.

³³Willmert, “Alhambra Palace Architecture”, 167–70.