Bent County register., 1888-08-04
The AIhambra.


On hill in the city of Granada. prin-
cipal town in the Spanish province of An
dalusia, stands an extensive fortress known
as the Alhambra, or "The Red Castle.n It is
the old citadel of the town, and was built
by the Moors when they were the masters
of Spain. Designed for warlike and de-
fensivo purposes only, it has no pretensio.,
to architectural grandeur or effect. Its
walls, which average thirty feet in height
and six feet in thickness are irregular in
form, and composed chiefly of loose stones
cemented together, and faced with plas
ter coat. The area enclosed by this fortress
Ia very extensive. 1t is like town in it
self, having its streets, its church, and con-
vent; and is said in its palmy days to have
afforded accommodation to garrison of 49,
600 men.
PLAN and rugged as is this structure in
external appearance, it is the casket which
holds one of the richest gems of the archi-
lecture Of any age or time. Within its
walls are enclosed the remains of the Moor
ish palace to which the name of "the Al
hambra" is generally applied, although it
belong properly to the fortress itself This
palace was built in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries and all the beauty
and ingenuity of Arabic art were lavished
upon its construction. Upon the expul-
sion of the Moors from Spain, it OCCASION
ally became the residence of the Christian
sovereigns, and Charles V. designed to
| place by its side another palace, which
should eclipse the glories of the art Of the
| i,fidel Moor. But this building, though it
| was commenced, and some very fine por-
| tions of 1T are still in existence, was never
completed. Its fragments were suffered to
! decay when Granada grew in disfavor as E
residence with the Spanish monarchs and,
when compared with the remains of tho
Moorish palace, they now show to grea:
disadvantage; the contrast between tie
Two styles of art and the nature of the
workmanship in each is greatly in favor
of the Moors. "The walls of the Christian
edifce," says one writer, "are defaced, the
paintings faded, the woodwork is decayed,
and festoons of cobwebs are seen hanging
from the ceiling. In the works of the
| Arabs, on the contrary, the walls remained
unaltered, except by the injuries inflicted
| by the hand of man. The color of the
| Paintings, in which there is no mixture of
oil, on removing the particles of dust, ap-
pear to have preserved their brightness
The beams and woodwork of the ceilings
present no signs of decay; no spiders, flies,
or other insects are to be seen there. The
art of rendering timber and paints durable,
| and of making porcelain mosaies, arabes-
ques, and other ornaments, began and end :
ed in Western Europe with the Moorish
sonquerors Of Spain"
| The remains Of the palace Of the A1ham-
bra consist of entrance-arches, corridors,
| and courts, constructed chiefly of marble.
| and richly adorned with arabesques. The
| Arabs were forbidden by their religion to
| use tho representation of living figures or
| animals in their ornamental devices which
therefore took the shape of flowers and
geometrical forms, sometimes very fanci-
full in their nature. The term ardbesque
| was applied to this class of ornament, after
the race by which it was chiefly usfh
These arabesque ornaments were cast %
moulds, and Joined with such extreme
| nicely that frequently no trace of the point
of junction can be detected. They wcre
colored in blue, rec, and gold, and the gen
eral effect in such edifices as tho Alb. hbra
is SO gorgeous that it cannot be realised by
description. An excellent idea of it, how
ever, was given by the Alhambra Court in
in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, which
was 8 most artistic imitation of the origi-
nal, both in style and material, although
on q smaller scale.
The many courts and corridors, of the Al
hambra were very elaborately decorated,
tho saloon known as the Hall of Abencer-
RACES, with it's beautiful stalacite roof, be-
ing composed of 5000 separate pieces fit
ting into each other with the greatest ex-
actitude. The hall takes its name from a
Moorish family, the last members of which
were treacherously y murdered in this cham
ber, A mark, said to have been left by
door; but sceptical people in later times
ave declared that it is nothing but the
tot water in 2regnated with iron. =