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Puerta de las Granadas
The Puerta de las Granadas, Puerta de la Justicia and the Puerta del Vino are the gates which are most commonly used nowadays, given that the Puerta de las Armas and the Puerta de los Siete Suelos have been sealed up for centuries. The Puerta de los Carros, used by automobile traffic and the guests of the Parador de San Francisco, was built after the conquest for hauling the materials used in the construction of the Carlos Quinto Palace (and, of course, the carriages of the royal occupants who were meant to live there), hence its name - Gate of the Carts.
The Gate of Pomegranates - Puerta de las Granadas - was built by the Christians in the 16th century in honour of the visit of Emperor Charles V, then known as the Puerta de Carlos Quinto. It was placed at the bottom of the Alhambra forest, on a street known as the Cuesta de Gomerez, which the Christians preferred to the old Moorish entrance at the foot of the Alcazaba. Under the Moors, the slopes around the castle had to be kept stripped bare of vegetation for military purposes, and the shady trees which now grace the hill were not planted until after the conquest, by the Christians. The gate is popularly known for the over-sized, bursting pomegranates carved in stone and which stand on its massive lintel. The pomegranate - granada - became the symbol of the city because of the similarity of this Spanish word and one of Granada's prehistoric names, Granata.
A few more steps up the hill and we discover the enormous Gate of Justice - the largest gate of the palace - leading to the only flattish area of the citadel, where the Palace of Carlos Quinto stands.
The Arabic name for the gate was long believed to refer to Islamic justice or law - charia. But in fact this was a misinterpretation for a similar-sounding word, and it has been shown that the translation should be Gate of the Esplanade. Its multiple arches are decorated with the Hand of Fatima, Mohammed's daughter, and the key to the Islamic paradise, as well as a Virgin and Child placed there by the Catholic Monarchs to consecrate the gate for Christianity.
The Puerta de las Armas - "Gate of Arms" - was the main entrance to the fortress when the Moors ruled over Granada. A rider could gallop down from the Albaicin, on the ramp atop the wall which connected the two hills, cross the river at the Puente del Cadí and ride up to this gate, which leads directly into the main courtyard of the fortress. Ever since the bridge collapsed in the 17th century, the gate has been closed.
The Puerta del Vino - "Gate of Wine" - stands next to the Palace of Carlos Quinto, on the "esplanade" above the Gate of Justice, and was once part of an inner wall which divided the palaces from the city - medina - of the Alhambra, and, as such, was closed every day after sundown. This is why it does not have the protective L-shaped passageway and, also, why it is so richly decorated with once-colourful geometrical motifs.
This very pretty gate has, since the 19th century, been a favourite subject for British and French water colour artists. Claude Débussy was inspired by one of these images to compose a charming piano piece with a suggestively Spanish flavour called La Puerta del Vino, even though he himself had never set foot south of the Pyrenees.
The name is, once more, a mistranslation by the Christians who took the city in the 16th century, and whose knowledge of Arabic - a language in which the slightest inflection can change the meaning of a word - was largely oral and limited to the lingua franca of trade and peace treaties.
It would have been unthinkable for Granada's Moors to associate one of their edifices with something as sinful as wine, even though they were accused by their pious North African cousins of succumbing to the temptation of drinking it. Like the name of the castle itself, Puerta del Vino probably means "Gate of Alhamar", for the Sultan who founded the Nasrid Dynasty.
Those who aspire to a more intimate knowledge of the city’s history should once take the main road up through the woods, rather than the foot path which leads to the Gate of Justice. On the left, forgotten among the trees and mossy stones, stands the Arco de las Orejas, the gate which once stood near the Plaza Bibarrambla in the city center, and which is shown in the famous etching by the English traveller who came here in the 19th century - by which time it had become a picturesque bird’s nest of garrets and topsy-turvy dwelling places...
Click here to read related excerpts from the book, Granada, City of My Dreams
visit the Casas de Lorenzo in Montefrio
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