DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0184
i56
History of Garden Art
and buried for a lifetime, even in their last stronghold at Granada. Navagero found castles
and gardens in ruins, but from his clear Italian style of description an informal account
is to be obtained of their former condition—though it is wrapped in fantastic phraseology
.and is over-full of sentiment. Thus he writes:
One leaves the encompassing walls of the Alhambra by a door at the back, and walks into the lovely
garden of a pleasure-house that stands a little higher. This, though not very large, is a striking building
with wonderful gardens and waterworks, the finest I have seen in Spain. It has many courts, all abundantly
supplied with water, but one in particular with a canal running through the middle, and full of fine
orange-trees and myrtles. One gets a view outside from a loggia, and below it the myrtles grow so high
that they almost reach to the balcony. The foliage is very thick, and the height so nearly the same that
it all looks just like a green floor. There is water flowing through the whole palace, and even at will in
the rooms, some of which are joined on to a grand summer-house.
Farther on he finds a court which is "full of greenery and wonderful trees," with a
good conduit: if certain pipes are closed up, a person walking on the green lawn sees all
of a sudden that there is water under his feet, and that everything threatens to be swamped,
but he can turn the water off quite easily and without being observed.
There is another remarkable court, though not a large one, which has ivy growing so thick that the
walls cannot be seen: this court stands on a rock, and has several balconies, from which one looks down
into the deep valley where the Darro runs—a charming, ravishing view. In the middle of this court
there is a fine fountain with a very large shell. The pipe in the middle shoots the water more than ten
fathoms into the air; the amount is astonishing, and nothing could be more attractive than the appearance
•of the waters as they fall.
On the very highest part of the castle grounds, in one of the gardens, there is a wide stairway, leading
up to a little terrace; from it there falls out of a rock the whole of the water that is distributed over the
palace. There it is held back by a great number of taps, so that one can let it out at any moment, in any
manner, and in any amount one pleases. At the present time the stairs are so made that after every few
steps there comes a wider one, which has a hollow place in the middle for the water to collect in. The
balustrade on either side of the stairs also has a depression in it like a small gutter. But above there are
taps for each of these divisions, so that one can at pleasure turn on the water into the gutters of the
balustrade, or the hollows of the wider steps. Also one can at will so increase the flow that it escapes
all restraints and overflows the steps, wetting anybody who happens to be there: many little jokes may be
played in this way.
In spite of all destruction, all restoration and rebuilding, we can reconstruct the past
from Navagero's description, with its beauty and charm. The great court still shows its
long canal cut right through the middle; and if the myrtles are not kept so well and are
less tall, they still show the same plantation on both sides. From the loggia on the south
we look down on the cool court, out of which we come to the chief garden-room, passing
through a pillared double gate on the north side. This gate is the most attractive, owing to
the vista which it gives, of all the relics that have been preserved of the architecture of
the Arabs, who were unusually sensitive to the picturesque. On the other side lies the ivy-
grown court that gives a view of the rock overlooking the Darro valley. Similar fine views
are given from balconies on the west, and on the east we pass through the Canal Court,
and other buildings put up later in the sixteenth century, into a beautiful little court, which
is really a kind of water-meadow, with flower-beds planted at intervals.
Old cypresses tower above as a border to this charming picture (Fig. in). Whether
one of these ancient trees, called the Cypress of the Sultana, can really be six hundred years
old, we must leave an open question. The many little streams, that appear in this place even
more frequently than in the canal garden, flowing all over the cistern brims and the various
History of Garden Art
and buried for a lifetime, even in their last stronghold at Granada. Navagero found castles
and gardens in ruins, but from his clear Italian style of description an informal account
is to be obtained of their former condition—though it is wrapped in fantastic phraseology
.and is over-full of sentiment. Thus he writes:
One leaves the encompassing walls of the Alhambra by a door at the back, and walks into the lovely
garden of a pleasure-house that stands a little higher. This, though not very large, is a striking building
with wonderful gardens and waterworks, the finest I have seen in Spain. It has many courts, all abundantly
supplied with water, but one in particular with a canal running through the middle, and full of fine
orange-trees and myrtles. One gets a view outside from a loggia, and below it the myrtles grow so high
that they almost reach to the balcony. The foliage is very thick, and the height so nearly the same that
it all looks just like a green floor. There is water flowing through the whole palace, and even at will in
the rooms, some of which are joined on to a grand summer-house.
Farther on he finds a court which is "full of greenery and wonderful trees," with a
good conduit: if certain pipes are closed up, a person walking on the green lawn sees all
of a sudden that there is water under his feet, and that everything threatens to be swamped,
but he can turn the water off quite easily and without being observed.
There is another remarkable court, though not a large one, which has ivy growing so thick that the
walls cannot be seen: this court stands on a rock, and has several balconies, from which one looks down
into the deep valley where the Darro runs—a charming, ravishing view. In the middle of this court
there is a fine fountain with a very large shell. The pipe in the middle shoots the water more than ten
fathoms into the air; the amount is astonishing, and nothing could be more attractive than the appearance
•of the waters as they fall.
On the very highest part of the castle grounds, in one of the gardens, there is a wide stairway, leading
up to a little terrace; from it there falls out of a rock the whole of the water that is distributed over the
palace. There it is held back by a great number of taps, so that one can let it out at any moment, in any
manner, and in any amount one pleases. At the present time the stairs are so made that after every few
steps there comes a wider one, which has a hollow place in the middle for the water to collect in. The
balustrade on either side of the stairs also has a depression in it like a small gutter. But above there are
taps for each of these divisions, so that one can at pleasure turn on the water into the gutters of the
balustrade, or the hollows of the wider steps. Also one can at will so increase the flow that it escapes
all restraints and overflows the steps, wetting anybody who happens to be there: many little jokes may be
played in this way.
In spite of all destruction, all restoration and rebuilding, we can reconstruct the past
from Navagero's description, with its beauty and charm. The great court still shows its
long canal cut right through the middle; and if the myrtles are not kept so well and are
less tall, they still show the same plantation on both sides. From the loggia on the south
we look down on the cool court, out of which we come to the chief garden-room, passing
through a pillared double gate on the north side. This gate is the most attractive, owing to
the vista which it gives, of all the relics that have been preserved of the architecture of
the Arabs, who were unusually sensitive to the picturesque. On the other side lies the ivy-
grown court that gives a view of the rock overlooking the Darro valley. Similar fine views
are given from balconies on the west, and on the east we pass through the Canal Court,
and other buildings put up later in the sixteenth century, into a beautiful little court, which
is really a kind of water-meadow, with flower-beds planted at intervals.
Old cypresses tower above as a border to this charming picture (Fig. in). Whether
one of these ancient trees, called the Cypress of the Sultana, can really be six hundred years
old, we must leave an open question. The many little streams, that appear in this place even
more frequently than in the canal garden, flowing all over the cistern brims and the various