Nazari symbols banned by Islam in the Alhambra in Granada drawings – Terra Peru

The wood and plaster restoration of the Alhambra in Granada takes place in the famous Patio de los Leones has unveiled drawings of Moorish period hidden in the back of the pieces, some with symbols prohibited by Islam.

Other have unusual reasons, including eleven-pointed star used to fit the hemispherical dome.

The Board of the Alhambra began on October 9 the first restoration works are made from the decade of the 30s in the heart of the Patio de los Leones, one of the emblems of the most visited monument in Spain.

Just over two months of work have enabled the Restoration Workshop of the Moorish monument signs and find drawings dating from the fourteenth century and that were hidden in the back of computer parts West make the dome pavilion of Patio de los Leones.

One of the responsible for the restoration, Maria Jose Domene said that during the operation found points of reference used by the craftsmen to know where to place each piece, but also drawings and strokes They were performed for the public not contemplated.

“Stray dots location, but also strokes and drawings with motifs even prohibited by Islam, as the human figure, and others like the head of a dog, with its polychrome, which , being in the back and having no varnish and dirt, have remained surprisingly “said Domene.

These dated around the year 1380 offered drawing geometric shapes, animal silhouettes, ornamental or vegetable plots and reveal how they worked Nazari craftsmen and techniques used for decoration of the Alhambra .

This restoration is the first globally is being done in these areas of the Courtyard of the Lions since the fourteenth century, a work that will add to a small intervention that was made between 1923 and 1936.

The roof of the pavilion, with a diameter of 3.30 meters, 669 zafates form, elongated pieces of pine wood and geometrically arranged in star wheel.

The leaders of the restoration have also stressed that this dome contains eleven-pointed star, which is unusual, because at the time all the stars were pointed pairs, which were used to fit the semicircular shape of the dome.

Each piece is carved and painted in minute detail, and the intervention initiated by the Board will allow to analyze the pigments, creating a mapping of the pieces and remove those with damage to rehabilitate and return them to their original location.

Director of the Board, Reynaldo Fernández, and the delegate of the regional government of Andalusia in Granada, Sandra Garcia, highlighted the quality of training and restorers of the Alhambra, demanded by other monuments Europe, whose rigorous training and have further discovered such findings and crafts preserve the monument.

Parallel to the intervention in the temple and in the Palace of the Lions way, the Conservation Service works in the gallery of the Hall of the Kings, where in the coming weeks will end an operation to clean up the colors of the plasterwork, which “will change the light and the way you see the Alhambra,” said Fernandez.

This is the first intervention with scientific methodology that is following international standards and allowed to find colors with ultraviolet light were exported during the construction of the Alhambra from Afghanistan, Blue highly prized for their high cost and rare in the architecture of the time.