1. Palace of Charles V2. Apartments of Emperor Charles V: Queen’s Rooms and Closet3. Church of Santa María de la Alhambra4. Convent of San Francisco (now Parador Nacional)56. Walled precinct (Bastions – Tendilla Cistern – Gate of the Seven Floors and Gate Of Justice)7. Basin of Charles V8. Gate of the Pomegranates – Russet Towers and Ravelin9. Plaza Nueva – Chancellery10. Church of Santa Ana11. Castril House12. Monastery of Santa Isabel La Real – Palace of Dar Al-Horra13. Hospital of San Juan de Dios14. Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo15. Cathedral16. The Madrasa17. Ecclesiastical Curia18. Plaza de Bibarrambla, Alcaicería and Zacatín19. Imperial Church of San Matías20. Casa de los Tiros21. Royal Chapel and Merchants’ Exchange
Generalife (Renaissance Gardens)
From the very moment of the Christian conquest, the gardens of the Alhambra were fully appreciated by the conquerors and were therefore carefully preserved and maintained. In his writings, Jerónimo Münzer makes mention of the wish of Ferdinand and Isabella to preserve the palaces and gardens, using Morisco labour for the purpose.
Far from a rejection of the art and culture of the conquered in favour of the values of the vanquishers, what was initiated in Renaissance Spain was a fully-fledged fashion for the Islamic, with the Moorish interpreted as a synonym for refinement. Proof of this is the admiration aroused by the gardens of the Alhambra in the Venetian ambassador to the court of Charles V, Andrea Navaggero.
The most important modifications to the gardens of the Alhambra were carried out inside the Nasrid palaces with the creation of the gardens of the Court of the Grated Window and the Court of the Lindaraja. This resulted in a superb combination of the design of a Muslim courtyard with the new architectural tastes of the Spanish Renaissance.
In the early 17th century, the Garden of Los Adarves (the Rampart Walks) was laid out in the Alhambra over the southern moat of the Alcazaba citadel, which had been filled in. Don Íñigo López de Mendoza y Mendoza, fourth Count of Tendilla and third Marquess of Mondéjar, was responsible for the transformation of this area, which is structured around two Renaissance fountains, one at each end, with marine genii on dolphins, and vegetation in between. The garden seen today, with its arrangements of hedges, shrubs and flower beds and its fountains with stone basins against the walls, is the result of further work in the second half of the 19th century in a sober classicist style.
The Generalife, a suburban villa of the Nasrid court surrounded by gardens and orchards, retained its use under the dominion of the Spanish kings. Charles V had a special predilection for the place, since its estate included a large hunting reserve, and an area for recreational ball games was cleared next to the new gardens, the upper part of which was stepped. Once again, western aesthetic concepts were thus integrated into those of the Orient.
It seems that it was in these gardens that the meeting took place between the Venetian ambassador and poet Andrea Navaggero and the Spanish poet and courtier Juan Boscán, whereby the Italian metre of the sonnet was introduced to Spain. This was adopted both by Boscán and by Garcilaso de la Vega, the greatest poet of the Spanish Renaissance, who was also a poet and man of arms.
