Legends of
the Alhambra
The Gate of
Justice
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The Alhambra of Granada, built
in AD 899 was originally conceived as a small fortress, although it was later
turned into a royal palace by the Moorish emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar. Of the
four gates in the Alhambra wall, the largest and most impressive one is the
Gate of Justice, also known as the Gate of the Esplanade because of the large
esplanade that extended before it.
This gate has become one
of the most recognizable symbols of the Alhambra, and one of the things that
have contributed to this is perhaps the legend told about the gate.
The legend speaks about
two symbols that are featured on the gate, the hand carved in the keystone of
the arch and a key in the inner archway. The Muslims felt so confident about
the inexpugnability of the gate that it was said that if the hand and the key
were to unite it would mean that the end of the world had arrived.
The Bewitched
Soldier
There was
once a Spanish student from the city of Salamanca that liked to travel around
Spain during the summer, playing his guitar and earning money with his songs.
The student travelled to Granada and was so amazed by the beauty of the city
that he decided to spend the whole summer there.
One day, when
he was at the Alhambra, he noticed an anachronistic soldier, wearing armour and
carrying a spear. He approached the soldier and asked him about his strange
clothing. The answer left him stunned; the soldier said that he was bewitched
300 years ago, forced to guard Boabdil’s treasure for eternity.
The curse
allowed him to leave the treasure room only once every 100 years, so he
promised the student half of the treasure in exchange for his help to lift the
curse. The student, blinded by the treasures that awaited him if he succeeded,
accepted the soldier’s offer.
In order
for the curse to be lifted, he had to find a pure maid and a fasting monk. The
maid was easy to find but the only fasting monk that he found happened to have
an insatiable appetite, although he promised to ignore it for the sake of the
bewitched soldier.
The soldier
took the student, the maid and the monk to a tower that didn’t seem to have any
entrance, suddenly, out of nowhere, a big metal door appeared and opened in
front of them, revealing the treasures of Boabdil.
The curse
seemed to have been lifted but when the monk saw that the treasure wasn’t only
made of gold and silver, but of delicacies that he hadn’t seen before in his
life, he couldn’t resist himself and started eating. In the blink of an eye,
the student, the maid and the monk found themselves out of the treasure room,
the big metal door was gone and there was no sign of the soldier.
Because of
the monk’s appetite the curse wasn’t lifted and the soldier was still force to
guard Boabdil’s treasure.
According
to the legend, the soldier can sometimes be seen, guarding the treasure,
waiting for someone to lift the curse.
The Court of
the Lions
Many years
ago, there was an Arab princess named Zaira, she was beautiful, intelligent and
sensitive; but her father, the king, was cruel, cold and evil.
The
princess and her father travelled to Al-Andalus, and stayed at the Alhambra.
Zaira fell so in love with Granada that she thought she was in a dream. Her
father, on the other side, hated everything about the city and the Alhambra.
As the
weeks went by, Zaira was feeling more and more like an Andalusian, and less
like an Arab. The king forbade her to leave her chambers so she spent most of
her days in a very well lit court next to her rooms.
One day she
was surprised by a young man named Arturo that had sneaked into the court,
saying that he had seen her from outside and had immediately fell in love with
her. She insisted that he left, for if
the king found him he would be beheaded by one of the 11 men that formed the
king’s guard. The young man left reluctantly, promising to come back.
The king
found out about Arturo’s visit to her daughter and ordered that he be captured
and locked away in the dungeons. Zaira was very sad and worried about Arturo,
and discovered what seemed to be a diary lying around in his father’s chambers;
she knew she shouldn’t read it, but something inside her made her do it. The
first page she read left her in shock, it described how the man claiming to be
his father and the king had murdered her parents and was waiting for the right
time to kill her, however he couldn’t do it because Zaira always carried with
her an amulet given to her by her mother. This amulet contained a spell casted by
her mother that was supposed to protect her.
The
princess, confused by what she had just read, asked the king to meet her at the
court. The king agreed to meet her, so he went to the court with his 11 man
guard. Zaira, with tears rolling down her eyes, confronted the king and asked
him if what she read in his diary was true. The king, knowing that she wouldn’t
be able to harm him because of his guard, admitted everything. Upon hearing the truth, Zaira remembered what
was the spell contained in the amulet, if she were to find the truth about her
parents something terrible would happen to the king and his guard. Suddenly,
she felt the wrath of a lion inside of her, and saw the king and his guard turn
into stone lions.
Zaira
rescued Arturo and they lived happily ever after.
Since then,
the court is known as The Court of the Lions, and few know that the lions are
actually the evil king and his guard, turned into stone by the spell of Zaira’s
mother.
