RenEU - Walled precinct (Bastions – Tendilla Cistern – Gate of the Seven Floors and Gate Of Justice)

Walled precinct (Bastions – Tendilla Cistern – Gate of the Seven Floors and Gate Of Justice)

Tendilla Cistern, built for the storage and supply of water at the orders of the Governor of the Alhambra immediately after the departure of the Nasrids

Some of the rebuilding carried out by the Castilians shortly after their arrival consisted of constructing new defences and bastions adapted to technological advances in weaponry, especially artillery

Most of the old gates and defensive towers had their bastions rebuilt with curved walls

After conquering Granada in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella turned the Alhambra into a Royal Fortress, expressing a wish to occupy it and beginning a gradual transformation with changes in its use. Of the four main gates of the walled precinct, the ones to the north face the city and are visually integrated in it. The other two in the south, whose names in the late 15th century were Bibalfarax (Seven Floors) and Principal (Justice), acted as a strategic external façade, an original function that was retained after the conquest by constructing defensive bastions in front of them for protection from artillery. An intermediate bastion, known as the Bastion of the Olive, was also built in front of the Tower of the Heads. Unlike the other two, which were circular, this one was polygonal.

The Gate of the Seven Floors, dating from the mid-15th century, had a ceremonial function during the Nasrid period, since jousts and military parades were held in front of it. The monumental Gate of Justice, built in 1348, displayed prominent Islamic cultural references such as the symbols of the hand and the key, which prompted a Christian reply in the form of a statue of the Virgin and a votive altar in the interior.

Preserved inside the bastion of the first of these gates are the outer walks on two storeys with half-barrel vaults and embrasures, while the second gate today lacks its floors and roof. This reinforcement of the defensive system with circular bastions effective against artillery, the feared military innovation of the time, was a consequence of the Alhambra's new functions as a military headquarters with its own jurisdiction. For nearly a quarter of a century, the key figure in this respect was Don Íñigo López de Mendoza (1442?-1515), second Count of Tendilla. An ambassador in Rome, he distinguished himself during the conquest of Granada and was present when Boabdil surrendered the keys to the fortress. King Ferdinand appointed him as Governor of the Alhambra and Captain-General of Granada, whereupon he undertook to direct the transformation of the fortress's defences for protection against artillery in accordance with the plans of the great Renaissance builder Ramiro López. He was also responsible for the construction of a cistern to supply the precinct with water. Rectangular in structure, this consisted of two parallel and interconnecting aisles with barrel vaults on which there were as many as six well curbs. One of these can be discerned in the esplanade that was laid out on top, now known as the Plaza of the Cisterns.

The conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella meant, among other things, innovations in armament and military defence. Of particular importance was the development of artillery and that of poliorcetics, or defensive architecture. The latter, which changed the appearance of military enclosures, was intimately linked with the first, and it was precisely the development of artillery that most affected the Alhambra, with the construction in the years immediately after the conquest of bastions, ravelins and inclined walls to reinforce the most vulnerable points or those most in need of protection, such as the main gates (Justice, Seven Floors) and the vertex of the Alcazaba (citadel). These forms and construction techniques resembled the experiments carried out in Italy, whose military engineers played a dominant role throughout the 16th century, but which their Spanish counterparts knew and put into practice owing to the military campaigns in the Kingdom of Naples, a dominion of the Crown of Aragon. Complementary to these new defences was the construction of the monumental underground cistern between the Alcazaba and the palaces.

At a later stage, in mid-century, the precinct of the Alcazaba was reinforced on the eastern side with a new inclined wall built by Luis Machuca. He had worked with the Italian military engineer Calvi, possibly the designer of this construction.