Minister for Culture visits Silla del Moro mirador and Lions

This morning, minister for Culture Ángeles González-Sinde visited the Silla del Moro mirador, to be opened to the public every Saturday and Sunday from next weekend onwards, as new Area of the Month. The minister was accompanied by government of Andalusia general secretary for Cultural Policies Bartolomé Ruiz, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (PAG) general director María del Mar Villafranca and Pedro Salmerón, the architect supervising the restoration of the mirador, along with other important figures from the world of Andalusian culture.
González-Sinde also paid a visit to the restored lions of the eponymous courtyard, currently on exhibition in the Crypt of the Palace of Carlos V.
The Silla del Moro, part of the defensive system of 14th-century Granada, is a remnant of the mediaeval buildings associated with the Alhambra and Generalife, along with the Dar al-Arusa and Alijares Palaces. Located on the northern slope of Cerro del Sol, the Silla del Moro dominated the course of the Darro river, the Generalife gardens, the Alhambra, the town of Granada, the plain of Granada and the surrounding mountains. It was specifically located to watch over the Royal Water Channel which supplied the Alhambra and the Generalife.
PAG and the Ministry for Culture have recovered the Silla del Moro as a lookout point over the city, re-establishing its original use. The archaeological work carried out consolidates and enhances the building known as the Castle of Santa Elena or Silla del Moro, and has also discovered valuable new information, such as the original construction marks, providing important information on the building’s layout and structure.
The works were overseen by PAG and part-financed by the Ministry for Culture, through the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural), which in recent years financed a range of interventions at the Nasrid site, including the Gate of the Pomegranates and the Muslim graveyard.