Concept in Definition ABC

Known as one of the most beautiful cities where the Muslim presence is strongest in the entire West, the city of Alhambra is located in the Granada region, in southern Spain. The Alhambra was for a long time the seat of the Muslim emirs until the city fell to the Catholic Monarchs in the 15th century. However, the influence Arab and Muslim remained deeply rooted and can be noticed to this day especially in the constructions and on the site urban.

The name of Alhambra comes from Arabic, meaning in this language "Red Fortress". The Alhambra is not actually a city like any other, but rather an urban center developed and established around a very rich palace complex founded by the Muslim emirs and sultans who inhabited the south of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. The Alhambra was completed in the 14th century as one of the culminating points of the Muslim power that had already been present in the region long before.

One of the most beautiful and impressive elements of the Alhambra is the fact that it combines in a way unique and particular the elements of nature that surround it (through parks, gardens and the

vegetation natural) with elements of the architecture Muslim, rich in details and overloaded with shapes sculpted in the material. Thus, the Alhambra is one of the clearest examples of the art Muslim and Moorish in the West, if not the most important. While the walls and ceilings have such extra detail that they resemble the stalactites of the caves, the arches have the typical onion shapes and the columns as well as the surfaces are completely decorated with shapes of vegetables, leaves and fruit.

The palace complex of the Alhambra included various buildings of a military, administrative, and ceremonial type, as well as spaces for production, rest and repose, of towers, etc. The Alhambra is today considered Heritage of the Humanity by UNESCO.

Themes in Alhambra