Presentation of the proposal

With this tour we try to approach students to the Alhambra from the point of view of architecture, the objective is to look at it, to learn to observe it as a building and from this analysis understand any other building by generalising the key points we are going to use in the visit.

Therefore, in our tour we are going to center on the following aspects of the Alhambra to understand it: use and functions of its constructions (walls, gates, palaces, courts …). Solidity and technology of construction, how is the Alhambra held?, what constructive strategies have been used? And finally the beauty, the enjoyment and the perception of the monument.

We will approach the Alhambra as a city, with its structure of streets and districts, and as fortress, as a symbol of the political and religious power to glorify the Islam, the sultan and God through its architecture. In addition, we will know the Alhambra as a "house" or inhabitable palace for the people who lived there.

We will analyse some construction strategies: arrangement and forms of the walls, columns, vaults, domes, ceilings, orientation…

We will study in detail the distribution of spaces, and the forms and lines of the buildings. In the decoration, in the treatment of light and water, as well as in the adequacy of the buildings to the human condition, in its habitability, the capacity to integrate the outer landscape in the interior, in the combination of light and shade, in the sounds, in sum, in the atmosphere.

Tour: Wall and Gate of Justice , Palace of Comares , Palace of the Lions , Palace of Charles V.

Targeted levels

This proposal is aimed at secondary and high school students.

To request the visit: call 958 5751 26

Index of teaching material

Presentation of the proposal

• Learn to see
• Attitudes and behaviours in the visit
• We prepare the start

Tour and contents

• Plan of the tour
  
  
• Entrance to the Alhambra: the Gate of Justice
  • Visual description
  • Sketch of its plant and elevation
  • Structure and functionality
    
• Gate of Wine
  • Comparison with the previous Gate at the visual and functional level
• The Fortress
  • Situation, location and landscape
  • Construction materials and functions
• The Palace of Comares
  • The passage of time in the Mexuar: restorations, additions…
  • Functions
• The Golden Court : composition and distribution of elements and functionality
  • The fountain and water
  • Integration and distribution of the different ornamental stucco patterns: geometric, vegetal, epigraphic
• The Court of Comares
  • Symmetry in the composition
  • Understanding the different possibilities of contemplation of the Nasrid architecture and decoration: From the general to the specific and vice versa.
  • Light and water in the court
  • Integración y distribución de las distintas formas decorativas del estuco : geométrica, vegetal, epigráfica
• Hall of the Ship
  • Restoration criteria of the Alhambra
  • Polychromy as a basic element of the Muslim decoration
• Hall of the Ambassadors
  • The decoration as an essential element in the articulation of the surface and definition of the space
  • The decoration of the different rooms depending on their function.
  • Analysis of the symbolism of texts through the reading of the poem "solio"
  • Symbolic and religious meaning of the decoration: repetitive rhythm and styling
  • Experimentation of the feelings produced by the room: space, decoration, light, their application to its function
• Palace of the Lions
  • The Court of the Lions and the Court of Comares: differences and functions
  • Structure and distribution of elements of the court.
  • The court as an example of imitation and integration of architecture-nature
  • The aesthetic use of water as creator of new perspectives.
  • Creative light as creator of new visual forms in the Hall of the Abencerrages
  • Light as aesthetic element and its incidence in the volumes.
  • Light and stalactites as generators of imaginary perspective: chiaroscuro and rhythm in the Hall of the Kings
  • Observation and interpretation of paintings
  • Study of the symbolic purpose and the visual effect of the vault of the Hall of the Two Sisters
  • Poem reading while the vault is contemplated
• Palace of Charles V
  • Comparative analysis between the Palace of Charles V and the Nasrid Palaces previously visited.
  • Influence of culture and thought on architecture and art.
  • Adaptation of the historical buildings to the new functions.
  • Layout and sketch of the plant of the palace
• The Rauda
  

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Light, shapes, colours… we learn to see Alhambra