Spain Trip #30: Alhambra Palace Part 3: Gardens, Nightingales and Fountains

Tom and Rob in one of Alhambra Palace's gardens

In today's blog about our Spain trip, we're still exploring the Alhambra Palace in Granada. We've walked through the palace, and now we're exploring the amazing gardens! In this blog you'll learn about their history, who commissioned them, the styles, and 2 of the bigger beautiful gardens. 

Jardín de la Sultana (Sultana’s Garden)

ABOUT THE ALHAMBRA GARDENS - The best and most famous late-medieval castle gardens in Europe stand on a fortified plateau, across a valley from the Generalife and surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains.

WHO COMMISSIONED THE GARDENS? Muhammad ibn-Yusuf ibn-Nash commissioned the garden. He was also known as Ibn al-Aḥmar  (1195 – 22 January 1273). He was the first ruler of the Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, and the founder of its ruling Nasrid dynasty.

Patio de la Acequia (Court of the Water Channel )

WHAT IS THE STYLE OF GARDEN? It is a distillation of the East Mediterranean tradition of garden-making; it is the prime example of garden design from the period of the 1200 and 1300s. It may have inspired the enclosed "knot and parterre gardens" of northern Europe.

View out over some of the gardens from a hilltop in the gardens

WHAT IS A "PARTERRE" GARDEN? A parterre is a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of plant beds, typically in symmetrical patterns, which are separated and connected by paths. The borders of the plant beds may be formed with stone or tightly pruned hedging, and their interiors may be planted with flowers or other plants or filled with mulch or gravel. The paths are constituted with gravel or turf grass.

Handsome Dan Clarke, our tour group leader

ABOUT THE GARDENS (from hereweare.net): The Palacio de Generalife (Architect’s Garden) was built in the early 1300’s, as the summer palace and country estate of the Moorish kings of Granada in Al-Andalus (now Andalucia).  The Generalife Gardens include the Patio de la Acequia (Court of the Water Channel or Water-Garden Courtyard), which has a long pool framed by flowerbeds, fountains, colonnades and pavilions, and the Jardín de la Sultana (Sultana’s Garden or Courtyard of the Cypress). The former is thought to best preserve the style of the medieval Persian garden in Al-Andalus.  Originally the palace was linked to the Alhambra by a covered walkway across the ravine that now divides them. The Generalife is one of the oldest surviving Moorish gardens.

SONGBIRDS - The gardens have a multitude of nightingales!

FOUNTAINS - The gardens are usually filled with the sound of running water from several fountains and cascades. These are supplied through a conduit 8 km (5.0 mi) long, which is connected with the Darro at the monastery of Jesus del Valle above Granada


NEXT: THE MANY  GHOSTS IN ALHAMBRA PALACE !