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 |  | Two of the most important Moorish buildings in Spain – the Alhambra and the Generalife – can be seen in Granada.The origins of the city, however, lie elsewhere. The oldest fortifications on the Cerro de San Miguel, opposite the Alhambra, date from Iberian and Roman times. Today the site is known as Alto Albaicín, which is derived from its subsequent Moorish name. From the mid 14th century – during Nasrid rule – this district was surrounded by a wall which played more of an administrative than a military role, delimiting the urban area and separating it from the surrounding countryside. Today, this wall still forms the boundary between Granada’s inner city and the surrounding suburbs.
For a long time, however, its immediate environs were decidedly uninviting. In the 19th century, part of the wall was destroyed by an earthquake.Rubble has been collecting on neighbouring land for centuries.
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Antonio Jimenez Torrecillas’ rebuilding of the wall is part of a large-scale restoration of the whole area. The architects had 112 cubic metres– roughly 300 tons – of granite piled up until their construction was equal in height and breadth to the old wall. From a distance, it looks like a continuation of the old wall, but seen close to it is clearly an independent construction. It follows the line of the Nasrid wall but stands on its own foundation and could therefore (theoretically) be demolished without damaging the historic masonry. Its exceptionally shallow stone courses are held together only by millimetre- thick mortared joints, giving the overall impression of a drystone wall. The wall is also hollow. Between the two wall shells is a covered walkway, which is pleasantly cool in summer.
The world outside can however be seen and sensed from within it. The granite slabs are mortared in a ‘spaced-out’ pattern, so that the gaps between them create a lively play of light and shadows in the interior. This also means that the pedestrians passing through the spaces within the wall can catch small, localised glimpses of the city. The architects themselves explain their intervention thus: “The aim is to give the impression of material collected and piled up in order to highlight even more the permanent and historic nature of the monument.”
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