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More than 1,300 years ago, Berbers from North Africa invaded the Iberian Peninsula (comprising what is now Spain and Portugal) and quickly established control over much of southern Europe.
For more than 800 years, they ruled a territory called al-Andalus, which encompassed the entire southern region of the Iberian Peninsula, including Córdoba (their capital), Toledo, Seville and Granada (where the Alhambra is located).
After centuries of political intrigue and fierce battles with Christian kings from Northern Europe, they finally ceded the Alhambra, their last major stronghold, to King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile in 1492 and retreated to North Africa.
As a nod to the site’s importance, Queen Isabella was residing at the captured Alhambra Palace later that same year when Christopher Columbus made his historic request for funds to outfit three ships and seek out the New World.
Evidence of the art and architecture that flourished under 800 years of Islamic rule is evident today in the fortresses, palaces, mosques and civil infrastructure left behind. The grandest of all these Moorish monuments is the Alhambra, an ancient walled fortress containing a collection of six palaces high above the city of Granada at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The complex is imposing from a distance, and even more impressive from the inside.
While there is evidence of fortress walls dating back to Roman times at the Alhambra, its basic outlines were laid out by Emir Muhammad I in 1238. Significant additional development occurred under Muhammad V in the 14th century. Fortunately, the Reconquista of the Alhambra in 1492 occurred peacefully, and the existing palaces were so beautiful that the conquering Europeans chose not to destroy them.
In 1526, King Charles V of Spain commissioned a round, coliseum-like Renaissance palace inside an existing (square) Moorish palace in the center of the Alhambra. The result is a mashup of architectural monuments from two completely different civilizations, blending soaring Renaissance art, statues and columns with Moorish architecture featuring ornately decorated arches, tile inlays, gardens, fountains and reflecting pools.
Islamic artists considered representational art to be akin to idolatry, so their stone carvings, plaster friezes and tile work feature intricate geometric patterns and elegant Arabic script. They created gardens and fountains designed to evoke the Quranic vision of a heavenly paradise on earth. The fairy tale courtyards and elaborate structures continue to inspire awe, wonder and admiration centuries after they were constructed.
Art, architecture, engineering, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and even classical Greek studies flourished during eight centuries of Islamic rule. Fortunately, much of this work was saved and translated rather than destroyed by the conquering Spaniards. It is worth pausing to consider how different the world might be if the Moors had not been conquered and continued to rule the southern third of Europe today.
The Alhambra features some of the finest-preserved ancient Islamic architecture in the world, juxtaposed with 16th-century Renaissance art and architecture. As a cultural and political center for centuries of Islamic rule in Europe, and later as a royal palace central to Spain’s domination of the continent, the Alhambra is at the heart of more than 1,000 years of history in Southern Europe. This unique combination of dramatic beauty and historical significance makes the Alhambra a must-see destination in Europe.
