Alhambra: Building the Legendary Fortress of Andalusia - Full Documentary

In southern Spain, in the heart of Andalusia, stands an extraordinary treasure, the fortress of Alhambra. Built more than 800 years ago by the Nasrids, it stretches the length of 14 soccer fields. Behind its huge ramparts, Alhambra conceals incredible architectural achievements. Sumptuous palaces, patios embellished with fountains, and triumphant feats of decorative artistry. It's a mix of experience, mathematical know-how, and geometric calculations. I think it's the pinnacle of plasterwork. For decades, archaeologists and historians have tried to understand the construction techniques of the Nasrid builders to unlock the secrets of this incredibly refined fortress. Now, thanks to the greatest experts in Arab architecture, computer-generated reconstructions, and never-before-seen aerial footage, we're about to reveal how Alhambra's grandeur arose from simple, unpretentious materials. The walls are made of compressed dirt and lime, and the decorations are simply made of plaster and small pieces of earthenware. Everything was made and extracted right here. Witness how the designers integrated the impressive ramparts into the territory's vast defensive system. Those are massive, strong walls. They say, strength. They say, this is where power resides, right? Discover the brilliant hydraulic network and the Nasrid's inventive mechanisms for supplying the city's water. It's still one of the most ingenious hydraulic water systems we've ever discovered in Andalusia. We'll unveil the engineering wonders they developed to cope with heat waves, along with techniques for embellishing their palaces. They left nothing to chance. Everything was planned, and they sought absolute perfection. This is the story of Alhambra and the Nasrid builders, who raised Arab architecture to the ranks of an art form by building a one-of-a-kind, palatial city. not far from the city of Granada and the impressive Sierra Nevada mountains. The fortress is east of the city, perched atop the huge Sabica Plateau at nearly 800 meters in altitude. Behind these high walls lies one of Andalusia's most incredible treasures. The city is an architectural marvel. Monuments with great finesse are everywhere you look. Built on a territory, the borders of which were constantly shifting, Alhambra is the result of a tumultuous history of centuries of fighting between Arabs and Christians. Around 1000 AD, the Iberian Peninsula was predominantly composed of Islamic principalities. In the north, the Christian kingdoms shared a sliver of land along the Pyrenees. The Arab domination was soon threatened by the Christians, who launched a campaign to reconquer the area and captured lands one by one over the next two centuries. The Christian advance was relentless. Yet in the far south of Andalusia, they encountered a then-unknown emir, Muhammad bin Yusuf bin Nasser, known as Muhammad I. The sultan of the Emirate of Granada, he was the founder of a dynasty that would eventually be given another name, the Nasrids. When he arrived in Granada in 1237, he decided to build his residence at the top of the Sabica Hill, where ruins of an 11th century fortress were present. It was this precise location he chose to lay the first stones of his future palatial city. The Alcazaba Fortress was composed of high towers and an inner medina. Just below it, inside a two-kilometer perimeter of ramparts, other buildings also sprung from the earth. It was the beginning of what would soon be known as Alhambra. In Arabic, Alhambra means the red one. And we know that the founder of the Nasrid dynasty, Muhammad I, was nicknamed Al-Ma, which means the red one. It's a tradition in Islamic architecture to name a place after its founder, but in the feminine form. The feminine of the red one is La Alhambra. The medina contained stones and artisan workshops. It was the beating heart of the Red Fortress, which at first was home to a few hundred people. Houses, places of worship, and gardens sprang up all around it. Alhambra wasn't just a palace in the general sense of the word. It was an entire palatial city, a royal city, with all the components that make a city what it is. Some of the buildings no longer exist today, but we can still see vestiges of palaces, homes, neighborhoods, fortifications, public baths, mosques, tanneries, and shops. Above the city was another edifice, the Palace of Generalife, which was connected to Alhambra by a long walled passage. The Generalife is the kind of summer resort, or certainly the escape palace, for the members of the court from the Alhambra. We know the Generalife does not have a reception hall. It doesn't have any of those spaces that go with statecraft. It really is a domestic place for enjoyment. And of course, it's right next door, so they could go for the day and come back. Perched above the hill, the impressive Alhambra complex kept watch over the city of Granada and its plains. From the heart of this capital, the sultans of the Nasrid dynasty succeeded one another for almost 250 years, consistently resisting the expansion of Christian territory. After Muhammad I, his successors continued to shape Alhambra, each one adding their own architectural and artistic touch to the complex. The city grew and densified. Orchards and buildings began to appear beyond the city walls, and multiple palaces were erected one after the other. Among them were the Mekswar, the Comares Palace, and the Palace of the Lions. By the end of the 14th century, Alhambra resembled its quasi-definitive appearance and was home to some 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants. Alhambra is unique because it's a living city that is still inhabited by people to this day. That means that anyone who was lucky enough to live here has helped reshape the city. They adapted it to fit the times and their needs, and we have specific proof of that evolution. Still, to this day, much of this dynamic, prosperous, and living city is still standing and continues to fascinate generations of historians and archaeologists. When you first see Alhambra, its high walls make a radical first impression. They're about 10 meters tall on average, as high as a three-story building, and serve to protect the city from potential invasion. Those are massive, strong walls that still today, when you're down in the city of Granada looking up at those walls, they are impressive. Very, very impressive. They say, strength. They say, this is where power resides, right? Some 800 years ago, there were no construction machines or automated transportation systems. So how did the Nasserids manage to build such colossal ramparts at the top of this hill? The answer is remarkably simple. Their construction materials came from close by, from the top of the hill itself. The walls are actually built out of compressed dirt and clay, excavated on Sabica Hill, near the site of Alhambra. The rest of the city reveals much of the same. There is no carved stone, no exotic wood, or precious stones. Everything is built with simple, locally sourced materials from the emirate of Granada. In Nasserid architecture, the columns are usually made of white marble from Makael, a municipality currently located in Almeria province, which was part of the emirate of Granada at the time. The walls are made of compressed dirt and lime, and all the decorations except the columns are made of plaster and small pieces of earthenware. Everything was made and extracted right here. Back then, there were more forests than there are today, so the wood also came from the Nasserid kingdom, pine wood primarily, but there were also other types. The climate in Granada is pretty extreme, and in medieval times it was even worse. There was snow and below freezing temperatures in the winter, and in the summer it would get above 40 degrees Celsius. The advantage of these materials is that they can handle that kind of climate. They were flexible enough to last and are the reason Alhambra is still standing today. Materials that were transported over short distances and suitable to the geological and climate constraints. Such was the secret of the Nasserid builders. That strategy, which was far from common at the time, allowed their structures to be built in only two to three years. In the 13th and 14th centuries in Europe, large-scale constructions were built out of carved stone. That meant they were expensive and took a long time to build. On the contrary, Andalusian and Nasserid constructions were completed quickly, so that the people could use them as soon as possible. Knowing their reign would not last very long, the sultans wanted to personally enjoy their architectural builds. In addition to actual construction, the Nasserid builders needed another crucial resource. Water. But on this promontory above the plains, water was particularly rare and precious. There were no rivers here. No groundwater table, not a single water source to meet the city's needs. The Daro River, which irrigates Granada, runs more than 100 meters below the city. Even rainwater was too irregular to be a reliable water source for the people. So how did Alhambra's builders manage to bring this blue gold into the heart of the fortress city? We know that the first troops who lived here used to access the Daro River via a curtain wall, a passage that was protected by walls that allowed them to reach the river, gather water and store it in a cistern. It was sufficient for a military compound, but it was not enough to support a city with palaces, baths, mosques, and all the other elements that made up a medieval Islamic city. As soon as Mohammed I got here and decided to make this location his home, he began designing and working on a permanent and sustainable water supply system. When he arrived in 1238, Mohammed I began a colossal undertaking, the construction of an immense hydraulic system to supply water to the Generalife and Alhambra. Archaeological vestiges of this ingenious system are still visible today and shed some light on how these ancient builders were successfully able to harness water. The starting point is found here, six kilometers from Alhambra, along the Daro River. Dating to the 1960s, this dam was built on the same site where the Nasrids had once built their own, smaller dam. Its remnants can still be seen beneath thousands of liters of water. From here, an immense canal deviated part of the Daro River's course, channeling it down a gentle slope to Alhambra. The geological structure of the area forced the artisans to build the canal in the form of a long tunnel within the very hill itself. Today, part of the tunnel has collapsed. But all specialists agree that its construction was a massive and particularly complex undertaking. Thanks to a lot of research conducted over the past few years, we've been able to determine just how this canal was built. It measured 180 meter high and about one meter wide. That meant a person could easily dig here during construction. We also discovered a series of wells and windows along the side of the canal, which we used to evacuate the extracted materials during construction, and allowed for easier maintenance of the canal to ensure consistent water level and flow along the slope to Alhambra. The tunnel ran along a gentle slope for several kilometers. Before reaching Alhambra, it divided into two parts. Two thirds of the water were diverted towards Generalife and the orchards below, while the remaining third bypassed the area to reach the east side of Alhambra. Just before the water flowed into the city, the two canals merged once again. The water passed over a ravine via an impressive aqueduct before finally reaching the water tower where it was channeled through the citadel. The water tower was the tower that controlled access to this enclosure. It was the starting point for a series of offshoots and diversions that channeled the water towards all of the cisterns located within the citadel, the reservoirs for the main residences and palaces, and the baths, which were used for both public hygiene purposes and rituals before entering any of the mosques. Inside the citadel, numerous remnants of this incredible water system are still visible today. Water, the source of life, was central to all local construction. In the Generalife gardens, this blue gold was given center stage in a sort of tribute to their mastery of it. The Generalife is a kind of perfect reveal of the water systems at the Alhambra. This is what I love about it. I love the fact that when you walk along that central channel in that main courtyard of the Generalife, you are seeing the water that makes everything downstream possible and makes the entire rest of the Alhambra possible. It's very humble. It doesn't announce itself. It doesn't say, you know, this is the primary water source for the rest of the palace. It doesn't say that. It just is. There's a statement in some ways of royal power, where when the sultan displays copious amounts of water, in a way he's saying, there may not be water in the environment, but I have water because I am a good steward of the environment, because I am reflecting that mission given to Muslims by God to be caretakers of the environment and to use it well, to be productive, to make it fruitful. And this is exactly the drama that is played out in these Islamic gardens, particularly at the Alhambra. Yet this impressive water supply system wasn't the only hydraulic masterpiece built by the Nasrids. Archaeologists also discovered that this civilization was capable of moving the water upwards through a series of especially ingenious systems. The first is found here, just below the military fortification of the Al-Qasaba. It sits atop a crest six meters above the Alhambra compound. To carry water to it, the Nasrids had to be particularly innovative. On the far end of Alhambra's internal system is a canal that constantly carried water to a first reservoir. It was directly connected to a second reservoir below it. As the water poured, it created a whirlpool effect that trapped air. In the second reservoir, the water and air were under pressure and were evacuated along two possible pathways. One ran downwards to regulate the pressure, and the second ran upwards towards an exit. Both exit points had a very narrow diameter. That resulted in the second reservoir having enough pressure to push the water six meters up, the equivalent of traveling up to the second floor of a building from street level. This system, which is known today as a water hammer, required very precise regulation of the water pressure within each reservoir. Some 800 years ago, the Nasrids may have been the only ones who mastered this technique. So far, we haven't discovered any other Iberian Peninsula civilization who used this technique. In the Middle Ages, given the technologies, materials, and their possible implementation at the time, it must have been incredibly difficult to build and maintain such a system. It was something really unique to Alhambra, to the extent that even in the 18th century, people still considered Alhambra a true marvel. Their system functioned and it successfully carried impressive quantities of water up to the Alcazaba, but we didn't really know how it worked. A bit farther away, west of the city, another site reveals the genius of the Nasrid engineers. Here, near the Royal Canal, are the remains of what specialists call a double canal. Branching off the Royal Canal, archaeologists discovered a 125-meter-long conduit dug within the mountainside. At its far end is a reservoir topped with a vertical well that's 63 meters high, the equivalent of a 20-story tower. There, the water was carried upwards by something called a noria, a serrated wheel powered by animals to raise water-filled buckets that are tied to a rope. But that's not all. This water was mixed with water from another canal and then sent to yet another reservoir. From there, another conduit pierced the mountain and joined a second well that was 60 meters deep. A second noria then raised the water again until it finally reached the top of Sabica Hill. As a result, the water in the Royal Canal travels 346 meters, the length of seven Olympic-sized swimming pools, before finally being collected 125 meters higher and distributed to the buildings and gardens. This system is a true technical feat that continues to impress specialists even today. The system for raising water using norias was very typical of Islamic Andalusia. But in this case, what's truly remarkable is the size of the wheel. It's over 60 meters high, which means that from a technical level, it was very difficult to get it going. But you can see the result. The wells are there. To this day, this double noria system is still one of the most ingenious hydraulic systems for carrying water upwards that we've ever discovered in Andalusia. After having mastered this blue gold, the Nacerites had to face another challenge, successfully protecting their capital from enemy kingdoms. On their own, the high walls were not enough to do the trick. The locals also needed to anticipate potential attacks in order to defend themselves. To do so, the builders constructed towers along the ramparts. They built 29 in total. These towers played a key role in the Nacerites' defensive strategy. We know the towers were used for defense in medieval times because they were built on the upper parts of the mountain and could be used to survey the vast territory below. They used signal mirrors to reflect light. And smoke signals to communicate and relay information between the many towers. They communicated from one tower to another about things like possible troop movements or how to best prepare their defense. Alhambra's watchtowers were actually the epicenter of a vast communication system that spread throughout the kingdom. Dozens of fortified towers were built at every strategic location, from the bigger cities to the villages and from the tops of the mountains to the lowest valleys. All built within eyesight of one another, they communicated using smoke signals or mirror signaling. In this way, information about enemy troops detected at the extremities of the kingdom could be relayed from one tower to another until it reached Alhambra. This ultra-efficient communication system and communications network enabled the Nasrids to react quickly to any attempted invasion, whether it came from the Christian kingdoms in the north or the other Arab sultanates in the south. Behind its large walls, the Alhambra citadel was well protected from any outside threat, which meant the Nasrid architects could focus on doing what they did best. Despite the simplicity of the materials used, Alhambra's buildings are among the most refined structures of the medieval era. These spectacular palaces have dazzled visitors for decades. The Comares Palace is one of the most impressive monuments. Designed according to Muslim architectural principles, it's built around a large courtyard that runs on a north-south axis. The patio is the center of domestic life in both Mediterranean and Islamic architecture. This is even more pronounced in Islamic architecture, as women are expected to remain at home in full privacy, protected from outside influences. Domestic life thus revolves around the courtyard, which has no windows or doors leading to the exterior of the structure. It's also where the decorations were the most elaborate, since it's where the inhabitants would spend most of their time. The courtyard is surrounded by reception rooms, which are connected by long hallways. The largest and most luxurious of these are all located on the northern side in the courtyard's extension. Right next to the Comares Palace, the Palace of the Lions was built along the same principles, with one exception. The courtyard runs on an east-west axis instead of a north-south one. That's most likely because the builders had to adapt the structure to fit the space available, which was located between a garden to the north, the neighboring palace and its hammam to the west, and multiple streets and buildings to the south and east. To compensate for the imbalance, the most important reception rooms in the Palace of the Lions still run from north to south. This rigorous architecture is complemented by a strong appreciation for geometry. The columns, archways, windows, fountains, and even the small channels built for water circulation within the Nasrid palaces are all perfectly symmetrical. The Nasrids, like many Islamic dynasties, appreciated geometry. They also loved symmetry. So very rarely do we see a space that is visibly asymmetrical. So there's a kind of overarching rectilinearity that characterizes Islamic art, and we see it absolutely in the Nasrids. The layout of the palace, even where palaces, different palaces within the Alhambra are positioned together, they're positioned in such a way that they don't interrupt these very clear north-south, east-west axes. The symmetry of the Nasrid palaces is further enhanced by incredible decorations. Geometric forms are everywhere, along with floral motifs and inscriptions of passages from the Quran. When they set out to decorate a space, the ornaments completely took over. Back in the time of the Nasrids, when a room was finally completed, that meant it was decorated from top to bottom. The floors were covered in fabric, ceramics, or earthenware. The walls featured decorative earthenware panels of various colors. And finally, the plaster and ceilings were bedecked with wood and muqarnas. Everything was profusely decorated. Decoration really comes to the fore with the Nasrids. It is probably the hallmark of their architecture. It's not there simply to be pretty, simply to be beautiful. It's actually doing something, which is to seduce our eyes and get us to stop thinking rationally. As if that were not enough, all of the decorations were affected by how they filtered light. When light entered from the outside, it passed through jalousie that were most likely ornate with stained glass, which created a wide range of colors. It was absolutely spectacular. Some of Alhambra's most remarkable decorations are these impressive vaults adorned with complex structures called muqarnas. The muqarnas' downward-extending honeycomb structures are reminiscent of stalactites and are characteristic of Islamic architecture. Behind their disorderly and chaotic appearance lies exceptional know-how that still amazes both amateurs and the greatest specialists alike. The Nasrid master builders had the great challenge of erecting these incredibly complex structures using only what they knew at the time. I have so much admiration for that. Every time I investigate them more closely, I learn something new. It is so mesmerizing to see a muqarnas dome. When you look at it, you cannot tell how high that dome rises. You absolutely cannot see that because it seems to rise infinitely. And that experience of the infinite is very hard to achieve in art. It's very hard to achieve ever, except when we're looking into the far distance or looking up to the heavens. And yet you have it inside a work of architecture. They've managed to recreate that experience of looking forever upwards because there is no termination to that dome. It just goes into darkness. How did the Nasrid artisans manage to build such incredible masterpieces? To understand, we must deconstruct the muqarnas piece by piece. In the beginning, the designers used only seven to eight specific geometric shapes, which complemented one another. They were then assembled one by one with plaster to form the desired structure. Specialists know that to obtain the perfect combination, the Nasrid engineers could not improvise as they worked. Everything followed a carefully prepared blueprint. The only way that you could possibly piece together a three-dimensional puzzle of that complexity is if you have a 3D geometrical schema in your mind and possibly written down. It's an early time in Islamic history to find written plans or written schemes for muqarnas, but we're pretty sure that they were writing it down because it's hard to imagine how you could control such a large geometrical figure as a muqarnas dome if you didn't have some kind of a guide. But in addition to their design that required absolute precision, the muqarnas often had to be installed more than 10 meters above the ground. To carry out this monumental task, the artisans built their structures from the bottom up. They fashioned their shapes out of molds that were filled with plaster. Once the plaster had dried and hardened, they extracted it from the mold, carved it, and polished it until it was the perfect shape. The pieces were then attached to the walls one by one using a plaster paste. Going from the outer contour of the column, the artisans progressed slowly until they reached the ceiling. It was a titanic undertaking that required great precision and a unique savoir-faire. It took a mix of experience and familiarity with geometric calculations to get all of that to remain suspended on its own at such heights. I think it represents the pinnacle of plasterwork. Not every lead artisan was capable of creating muqarnas vaults. As one's gaze shifts from the muqarna's ceilings, another type of artistic and mathematical wonder catches the eye. Impressive ceramic combinations decorate the floors, walls, and even some ceilings. Tens of thousands of small earthenware tiles in various colors form geometric shapes and patterns that stretch on infinitely. These designs are called geometric lasso, and while they seem extremely complicated, they're actually based on very simple shapes. This geometry is founded in basic elements like the square or the circle. The rotation of a square will generate four-pointed, eight-pointed, or sixteen-pointed stars. Rotating, reflecting, and translating the shapes results in all of the combinations of decorative and geometric elements that you find in Alhambra. All of it came from a simple square or circle. Those two simple shapes are the root of the entire complex system of geometric lasso. How did the Nasrids manage to transform a simple square into the elaborate patterns that make up geometric lasso? To find out, we have to go back to the original shape. Two offset squares form a first star shape. Then, by prolonging the lines of each square, you get another star with longer points. When you connect the tips of the second star, you get an octagon. By tracing the diagonal lines of the square that surrounds the star, you get a large cross. When all of the elements are drawn out, you just have to choose which lines to keep and which ones to erase. And when you start to add colors, you can create even more patterns. Then you just repeat your chosen pattern, combine it with other patterns, and add a mix of colors in order to get complex and elegant designs. In Alhambra's palaces, geometry plays a role in even the smallest details. What fascinates me is the way that the Alhambra reveals a larger Islamic interest in mathematics and geometry. Because we forget that in the very beginning, one of the most important things in the Islamic world was to determine the correct time for prayer, which required a reading of the stars and the sun and the moon, and also map making, because they were traveling across the world, across certainly the Islamic world, in order to perform the pilgrimage and in order to conduct trade. So you have this early interest in geometry that is driven really by religious reasons, but it starts to permeate the culture so that it becomes something that everyone is interested in and it becomes a kind of art form. Thanks to this skillful combination of math and art, the Nasrids transformed Alhambra into a real architectural treasure. From the ceramic decorations to the lavish Muqarnas vaults, everything was designed to delight the sultans and their guests. But the structures also needed to be comfortable. And in this region, where summers can be suffocatingly hot, finding ways to stay cool was essential. Scientists have discovered that many of the buildings were equipped with a natural cooling system that was also reversible. One of the most elaborate is found in the last structure the Nasrids built here in the 15th century, the Tower of the Princesses. This small palace residence is part of the defensive enclosure, and like the other buildings, it was erected around a central courtyard. What's special about this building is that it regroups all the temperature-regulating strategies found in the other structures. It may be hard to imagine today when one looks up at this tower that's open on all four sides, but when it was built, there's no doubt it was a pleasure to live in. Outside, it could have been 40 degrees Celsius on a hot summer day, but inside, these rooms could maintain a comfortable 25 degrees. Today, those kinds of conditions wouldn't be acceptable, but back then, it was the absolute best they could do. How did the Nasrid architects manage to regulate the temperature so efficiently during a summer heat wave? Their secret lies in the structure's design, which was thoughtfully conceived to limit heat gain. Like the other structures in Alhambra, the most important rooms in the Tower of the Princesses were on the north side, away from the summer sun. In addition, the unbaked clay walls were considerably thick. As a result, the external heat would take a long time to penetrate the structure. The cool of the morning would thus last into the early afternoon, right when the thermometer would begin to climb. The suffocating heat of the late afternoon would only begin to appear by late evening, the coolest time of the day. Another key feature that helped regulate the temperature and light was the smallness of the openings. Many of these buildings feature windows that limit the amount of heat that's exchanged with the outside. During the day, they could be closed with jalousie or other elements that acted as an initial filter for the light and the outside heat. This enabled them to somewhat control the indoor temperature and the amount of light they allowed to come inside, which helped keep the rooms cool when necessary. They could also open the windows if they wanted the opposite effect. Even though they did everything they could to keep the summer heat out of the buildings, it always managed to sneak inside. That's why they came up with a way to evacuate the heat efficiently. In other words, they built a natural ventilation system. Once more, the windows played a key role in their model. In particular, the numerous windows towards the top all around the building. Hot air, which is lighter than cold air, tends to rise. Therefore, it could escape via these openings in the upper part of the room. This is known as a chimney effect. This ventilation was accentuated by another central element in every building in Alhambra, water. Given the heat, this water would evaporate and cool the atmospheric air. It generated a current of fresh air, which would diffuse in the lower parts of the building. That pushed the warmer air upwards, where it would be evacuated more efficiently. All of the reception buildings in Alhambra thus included a refreshing basin. And often also had fountains and small channels. The fresh streaming water helped contribute to the natural cooling of the room even more efficiently. By helping alleviate the effects of extreme weather, the life-giving waters literally shaped Alhambra's living spaces. Water played a central role in the layout of every building. It was valued, glorified, honored, and treated as one of the citadel's most precious assets. It's thanks to a near-perfect mastery of this blue gold that Alhambra became such a grandiose and thriving oasis, and a symbol of the Nasrid's influence in Andalusia for 250 years. Built in the 15th century, when the palatial city was in its prime, the kingdom's power began to wane under pressure from the Catholics, who grew stronger by the day. At that time, the Emirate of Granada had long been the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. Their opponents were two highly powerful Catholic kingdoms, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. In 1492, in the final battle, the Catholics triumphed over the Nasrids. Granada and Alhambra fell into their hands. Back then, the conquerors usually destroyed all of the temples and palaces of the vanquished people. But the Christian kings were absolutely enthralled by the beauty of Alhambra. The sublime Moorish palaces were spared and transformed into official royal residences when the court passed through Granada. Even so, the Catholic rulers left their mark on the citadel to establish their domination. Some structures were destroyed, and new ones were built in their place. The Catholic kings converted Alhambra into a royal residence. They gave certain spaces to the inhabitants and, based on what we know today, populated the city primarily with soldiers, transforming what was once a Muslim city into a Christian city. In 1527, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered the construction of what is still the most significant Catholic structure in the citadel. A massive palace directly adjacent to the Nasrids. The 63-meter-long square structure was 17 meters tall and held a circular patio measuring 30 meters in diameter, decorated with a double colonnade. One could think that this palace was meant as an affront to the Nasrid civilization. A desire to crush it was something even more grandiose. But the truth is that Charles V held a deep admiration for Alhambra. Charles V was passionate about those palaces. He spent a six-month-long honeymoon there dining in the Hall of the Two Sisters, which is just next to us here. That's why architect Pedro Machuca, who was tasked with building the new palace, had this hall named His Majesty the Emperor's Dining Room. You could say he had a great appreciation for these palaces. Contrary to the Nasrid palaces that Charles V so admired, his own palace was made of carved stone. Its construction was hence highly time-consuming and complex, like all castles built in the Renaissance. In the end, the emperor never even lived there and neither did his son, who inherited the throne. A century after the start of its construction, work ceased in 1637 and the building was left without a roof. That was when Alhambra fell from grace. The new Spanish royal family established the capital in Madrid. The Nasrid citadel was abandoned. For more than two centuries, it fell into oblivion and its rooms became pigsties and bistros. In the early 19th century, Napoleon's French troops moved in and blew up several buildings when they left. The ruins of the water tower are a sad testament to the destruction inflicted by the emperor's soldiers. It was only in the middle of the 19th century that Alhambra was rediscovered by its romantics. Despite the previous dark years, the city was still standing and many of its buildings, including several luxurious palaces, were intact. The palace of Charles V was finally given a roof and ever since, generations of specialists have worked to preserve and study Alhambra. It's a treasure of Arab-Andalusian architecture and a precious example of the know-how of the Nasrid architects, engineers, and artisans who built it. This is an era that does not have the steam engine. It does not have electricity. This is all manual labor and also the use of machines like ropes and pulleys and that kind of thing. It's just extraordinary when you think of how much labor goes into that. And of course, it's all unseen labor because today, who do we celebrate? We celebrate the Nasrid Sultan. We celebrate, you know, the people who enjoyed the fruits of that labor, but we don't stop and think about all the hardworking people who lifted that stone and cut that stone. They are nameless. But we see them. We see them when we look at the walls because that's their work. That's their legacy. In 250 years, the Nasrid builders managed to erect a luxurious and thriving city that continues to fascinate even the greatest experts today. I think Alhambra is something truly unique in this world, something that surprised even its own builders. It has astounded each and every culture that came in succession, and I have no doubt that it will continue to surprise us.