COMUNICACIÓN Y PRENSA

El Patio Alhambra en el Crystal Palace (“The Alhambra Court at the Crystal Palace”), written by the British architect and designer Owen Jones (London, 1809–1874), is a guidebook on the re-creation of the Nasrid Monument that the author himself built in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham in 1854, which was a copy of the pavilion built in Hyde Park on the occasion of the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.
This book, which never before has been translated into Spanish, was published now by the Patronato de la Alhambra and the publishing house Abeda, including introductions by Juan Calatrava, Head of the University of Granada School of Technical Architecture, and José Tito Rojo, Curator of the Botanic Garden of the University of Granada. Its most outstanding feature is that The Alhambra Court and the writings of the architect, who is considered to be one of the pioneers in scientific studies of the Monument, became the design handbook with most impact in 19th-Century Europe.
Owen Jones re-created in Sydenham the Court of the Lions, the Hall of the Kings, the Hall of the Kings and two other rooms with the same ornamental elements but without reference to a specific room.
The Londoner architect not only made buildings and decorations, he also designed carpets, wallpapers and even playing cards with an Moresque air. His work contributed in the interest in the original monument, such as some years before the Tales of Washington Irving did.
The book contains the small guidebook by Owen Jones, together with the introductory studies by the architect Juan Calatrava and by the botanist José Tito. The “Londoner” Court of the Lions is shown with the garden the original site included during the first half of the 19th century.