We toured the Alcázar de Jerez - it's an interesting slice of history and culture, explained with plaques (I've quoted a few 😉)
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| Entrance |
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From the entrance plaque:
Historic Site XII-XVIII Centuries
The Alcázar de Jerez is one of the major landmarks of the city and is its oldest preserved historic site, located in the south-east corner of the walled enclosure it combined with the walls, towers and gates to form a complex defensive system.
It was built by the Almohads between the XII and XIII centuries, at the same time as the fortified walls of the city. Although the greater part of the preserved Islamic buildings date from this period, recent archeological excavations have uncovered the existence of an earlier defensive enclosure.
The fortress enclosure, which has been partially restored to a good state of preservation, provides a revealing glimpse of the history of the Alcázar de Jerez under periods of first Islamic and later Christian rule: towers, crenellated walls, bent-entrance gateways, evocative horseshoe archways, parade ground and gardens. The mosque - the only one currently preserved - was turned into a chapel by King Alfonso X the Wise after the conquest of the city in 1264. The Arab baths, pools, cisterns and water wheels bear witness to the importance of water and a perfect control and command of hydraulic infrastructures. All of this without breaking the perfect harmony of the historic site as a whole, finished off by important reforms carried out in the XVII century by the Villavicencio family, who in 1664 - empowered by a Royal Decree issued by King Felipe IV - took over the tenancy of the Alcázar. This magnificent Baroque palace - known as the Villavicencio Palace - and the olive mill represent the most significant legacy of the work carried out by this illustrious Jerez family.
The Alcázar was declared a site of historic and artistic interest by the republican government in 1931. It currently belongs to Jerez Town Council which, since 1996, has carried out a series of reforms in order to achieve an integral recuperation of the historic site as a whole. The latest of these was completed in 2010, preserving and giving public use to practically the whole of the Alcázar.
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Plaza des Armas - beautiful
but impossible for a wheelchair 😔
There are *lots* of pools and fountains!
Courtyard of Saint Ferdinand
The sculpture comes from the cloisters of Santo Domingo.
Currently, it is inside the Alcázar, next to the Puerta del Campo (Field Gate), now representing the son of the Saintly King, Alfonso X the Wise.
Perhaps the reason for the name-change lies in the importance and connection that the Wise King had with Jerez, since it was he who definitively conquered the city in 1264.
Water wheel, cistern, aqueduct and bread oven
Although the supply of water to the Alcazar was guaranteed by the main well, the gathering and storage of rainwater was usual practice in the Islamic culture. The cistern located below the water is an illustration of this, given that there is no connection to any of the underground aquifers and was filed exclusively from the gutters which collected rainwater from the city walls and the Puerta del Campo. These channels led to a collection tank built into the wall itself which was connected to the cistern where the rainwater was stored.
In order to continuously extract water from the cistern a waterwheel was needed, the type known as a rosary wheel; the current one is a reproduction - given the buckets hung down on a rope to reach the water in the same way as rosary beads. The waterwheel was of the type powered by an animal or person, known in Spanish as a "blood wheel". This wheel was man-powered. As the wheel turns the buckets (tubular ceramic recipients) filled as they were submerged in the water then emptied into a channel upon reaching the surface.
The use given to the wheel and cistern was not that of supplying water to the adjacent baths as was first thought, given that recent archeological excavation have shown that an aqueduct connected the main well to the water tank, in the roof above the baths, which seems logical if we take into account the water and the volume of flow required to enable them to function.
The waterwheel would have been used to periodically irrigate the plots and gardens located in front of the Royal Pavilion and to supply the adjacent oven. This large bread oven, or tahona, was used to provide bread and military rations for the troops billeted in the défensive enclosure. In the times of water shortage, and if the aquifer were empty, a valve added to the aqueduct to the baths could be closed, allowing a water deposit or small tank the foot of the oven to fill and thus enable it to continue producing food.
From a plaque:
Royal Pavilion
There is evidence of a time during Islamic rule when Jerez was independent as, in 1145, Abu al-Gamar managed to take control of a vast portion of territory reaching as far as Arcos and Ronda. Unfortunately this brief period of independence came to an abrupt end with the Almohad invasion a year later, although the city maintained its importance during the rest of the Islamic period. Its governors enjoying positions of privilege, including a separate room in the Alcázar to receive distinguished guests.
The only residential building that remains from the original Almohad Alcázar (12th century) is preserved next to the Octagonal Tower, supported by the wall and at a great height. It is a resting pavilion or protocol hall intended for the residence of guests and the private area of the Wali. The complex consists of pavilion, pool, orchard and vegetable garden. Originally, a portico with arches and plasterwork decoration, of which only the remains of the pillars survive, would have shaded the entrance and, below, a fountain would have welcomed visitors to the central hall.
What is known as the Royal Pavilion repeats the classic layout of this type of building in the Islamic world. The entrance to the central hall is through a horseshoe arch with a recessed alfiz, leading to a square room covered by an eight-sided dome. This is a Qubba, a term in Islamic architecture for square and centrally planned buildings covered by a dome. On both sides, through two horseshoe arches with alfiz, the alcoves open, covered with barrel vaults. These spaces were intended for privacy and rest.
The pavilion, located at a high point with views of the pool and orchard, perfectly fits this type of construction, common in the Islamic world, where architecture, water, and vegetation blend in perfect harmony.
The pool served to store water necessary for irrigating the orchard and vegetable plots. Additionally, the constant presence of water deriving from the pool and fountains had both a recreational and aesthetic function, another element that enhanced sensory enjoyment. The vegetable garden reproduces, both in its traditional irrigation system and in the types of plants and trees, an Andalusian orchard and vegetable garden.
Crenellations
From a plaque:
Arab Baths
The private thermal baths, or hammams, of the Alcázar are one of the few surviving examples of the Almohad dynasty which currently exist in such good state of preservation in Spain.
These baths formed an inherent part of daily life in al-Andalus partly due to their religious significance (given that ablutions were equated with ritual purification) and for evident hygienic reasons, but also because they were places for people to gather, talk and hold meetings in relaxed, intimate surroundings.
Their design corresponds to that of the traditional Islamic baths whose origins lie in the Roman thermae, consisting of three separate adjoining rooms (cold, warm and hot).
Cold room (al-bayt al barid)
Unlike Roman frigidarium this space did not include a pool but a tank filled with cold water which individuals would use in order to complete the lengthy ritual process of ablutions.
Warm room (al-bayt al-wastani)
The largest room, the tepidarium, where the longest periods of time were spent and where bodies were soaped and received massages. We are immediately struck by the beauty of the vaulted ceiling and the star-shaped skylights which served to provide both illumination and ventilation for the different rooms, poetically reproducing an image of the star-filled desert sky. In the center there possibly stood a tank from which water could be taken to splash oneself:
Hot room (al-bayt al-sajum)
The temperature in this room, the caldarium, was very high given its proximity to the boiler. Heat was produced by the boiler in an adjacent room and then circulated through a system of empty spaces left under the floor, of which the support pillars and four chimneys which provided an outlet for the smoke are still remaining. Steam was then produced by pouring water onto the hot stone floor. On the roof above this room rests a cistern which supplied the baths with water. The water reached the roof by means of a waterwheel located adjacent to the back wall of the building.
A series of auxiliary buildings would also have existed adjacent to these rooms, such as the dressing room, or al-bayt al-maslaj, where users shed their garments and received towels and wooden clogs. This area has only recently been uncovered.
Similarly the boiler room, or al-bayt al-burma, now directly visible from interior of the baths but originally separated by a thin wall. The wood room was located in the exterior to feed the oven which supplied the boiler with hot water.
There are fantastic views from here - This is the cathedral, viewed from the gardens.
A relief map of the walled city; the Alcázar is in the upper right corner
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