HISTORIC DOOR IN GRANADA Elvira Arch

HISTORIC DOOR IN GRANADA... more

by Guido Montanes Castillo

Title

HISTORIC DOOR IN GRANADA Elvira Arch

Artist

Guido Montanes Castillo

Medium

Photograph

Description

HISTORIC DOOR IN GRANADA
ELVIRA DOOR
SPAIN

It was populated in Iberian period and Roman dispersed settlement existed. There is no data before the arrival of the Zirid Berber Islamic settlement, so it is assumed that the city was abandoned since the end of the Roman Empire until the founding of the Zirid kingdom in 1013 when it was surrounded by big walls. According to some linguists it owes its present name to the inhabitants of the city of Baeza who banished her after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, settled in this area of Granada outside the existing walls. Other linguists claim that the name comes from the Arabic al-bayyāzīn (as its pronounced with imala, al-bayyīzīn), meaning the suburb of falconers. However, the fact that in Andalusia there are many other neighborhoods with that name, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), Alhama de Granada, Salobreña and Huéneja (Granada), Antequera and Villanueva de Algaidas (Málaga), Baena (Córdoba) porcuna and Sabiote (Jaén), and Constantina (Sevilla), casts doubt on this thesis. There are also neighborhoods with that name in other parts of Spain, as in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), result of the expulsion of the Moors after the Revolt of the Alpujarras or in Pastrana (Guadalajara), this neighborhood created by Doña Ana de Eboli to accommodate the Moorish Kingdom of Granada.

Is one of the oldest centers of Muslim culture in Granada, with the Alhambra, the Realejo and Arrabal de Bib-Arrambla, on the flat part of the city.

Before the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, in what is now the city of Granada and its surroundings there were three small populations:

Iliberis (Elvira), what was later called Albaicin and Alcazaba
Castilia, near the present town of Atarfe
Garnata, on the opposite hill to the Alcazaba, which was more a neighborhood of Iliberis.
However, after these classic statements, current archaeological research, Madinat Ilbira located in Atarfe until the 11th century when that city was moved to the Albaicin after the fall of the Caliphate and the insecurity it generates. The inhabitants of Ilbira undergo as clients Sinhaya and ziríes and it is decided the transfer of the capital of the Cora de Elvira to Hill Albaicín.


Typical street of the Albayzín.
The neighborhood had its greatest influence at the time of the Nasrids. The Albaicín maintains the urban fabric of the Moorish period, with narrow streets, in an intricate network that extends from the top (St. Nicholas) through the course of the river Darro and Calle Elvira, both located in Plaza Nueva.

In December 1499, Albaicín become the starting point of a rebellion throughout Granada, which were triggered by the forced conversions of the Muslim population to Christianity.[1]

The traditional type of house is the carmen, consisting of a free house surrounded by a high wall that separates it from the street and includes a small orchard or garden.

It was characteristic of this district the channeling and distribution of drinking water through wells; in all there were found about 28; of which a large majority is preserved but is not in use because its pipes are broken over time.

In 1994, the Albaicín was declared World Heritage by UNESCO as an extension of the monuments of the Alhambra and Generalife.[2]

Uploaded

March 21st, 2012