When Charles I, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella became King, he had a Renaissance palace built for his official functions, but used the stunning Palacios Nazaries as his royal residence in Granada.
The palace was designed as a circle-within-a-square by a pupil of Michelangelo, and is considered Spain's most impressive Renaissance building.
According to those who have studied this stuff, it is possible that the palace was designed to have a dome. But Charles's son, Prince Philip II abandoned it to build El Escorial in the foothills outside of Madrid.
(Two years ago we went to El Escorial -- it's impressive on the inside, boring on the outside, and overwhelming.)
The Palace is famous for the many columns on the two levels -- 32 Doric columns on the bottom level, and 32 Ionic columns on the second story.
There are two free museums in the palace. We skipped the Fine Arts Museum, but enjoyed the Museum of the Alhambra on the first floor, as it features some of the best Moorish art that has survived from those days.
The Palace isn't the most interesting part of the Alhambra, but it is still worth a visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment