ALHAM'BRA (AL al, the + llantra, red). The fortified palaee citadel of the Moorish kings of Granada. As early as the Ninth Century a citadel was located here with the name al-Hamra, which was rebuilt when Granada became the cap ital of what was left of the Moorish dominions in Spain, by King Mohammed Ibn-el-Ahmar and his successors (1248, 1279. 1306, 1354). The cit adel stands on a hill north of Granada, on a ter race about 2500 by 075 feet, and is surrounded by a wall with 13 square towers, over a mile in circuit, built of the red brick which gave it the name of Kal'at el-Flamrd, "The Red Castle," In side the citadel were beautiful gardens, a don jon citadel, a gate of justice, a watch tower, and, finally. the palace itself, as sombre and plain on the outside as it was smiling and deeorative within. Charles V. destroyed a large part of it (especially the Winter Palace) to make room for a tasteless Renaissance building, and Philip V. still further mutilated it. Mutilated as it is, it remains the best proof of the artistic character of the Moorish dominion in Spain, even though in details the work may not be so exquisite as earlier work in Egypt and the East. What re mains is grouped around two principal oblong courts, the Court of the Blessing (140x74 feet), and the Court of the Lions (116x66 feet). There are porticoes, pillared halls, small gardens, and a mosque. The Court of the Lions is surrounded by arcades supported by 124 white marble col umns, while similar arcades frame the ends of the other court. The main reception-hall, called
the hail of the Ambassadors, i; a square (37 feet), surmounted by a beautiful dome 75 feet high, with stalactite pendent ices. Connected with the Court of the Lions are two smaller, but equal ly exquisite, halls, the Ha]] of the Abencerrages, with a dome and exquisite columns, used as a banquet-hall, and the I fall of the Two Sisters, a pleasure-room communicating with the baths. There is a network of smaller apartments. All the surfaces are decorated with a bewildering mass of color and design in tiles, stucco, and painting. Red, blue, black, and gold are the principal colors; the ornamentation comprises not only the plain geometrical patterns, but also a profusion of 011ie mottoes and of heraldic floral designs and arabesques. The most charac teristic parts were reproduced in the Alhambra Court of the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, and the palace has served as a model for innumer able modern imitations of Moorish art. The Al hambra was partly restored by Queen Isabella 11., hut was damaged by fire in 1890. See M0 11AMMEDAN ART.
Consult: Washing,ton Irving, The Alhambra (New York, 1832) ; Goury and Jones, Plans, Elevations, Sections and- Details of The Alham bra (London, 1842) ; Si, Junghiindel, Die Bait kunst Spaniens (Dresden, 1889) ; Girault de Prangey, Monuments orabes ct morcmines d'Es paync (Paris, 1839) ; Bisson, Choice d'OrlICtlientS MOICSVICS de l'Alhambra (Paris, 1855).