I want to show the Abencerrajes’ Hall, visitor. As you can see, it is raised slightly above the level of the courtyard, and it has two side rooms off it.
Can you see the lovely dome? It is made up of eight-pointed honeycomb work known as mocárabe, above eight squinches in the roof. The layout of the windows means that the light changes throughout the day. And on the floor, to reflect all this beauty, stands a simple twelve-sided fountain.

They say that this beautiful room witnessed a banquet given by Boabdil´s father, the Sultan Muley Hacén, for 36 noblemen from the Abencerrajes family. The dinner was in fact an ambush, and, in a surprise attack, the guests ended up being killed and beheaded. They say that the blood-red colours on the fountain are traces of the massacre.

But that´s just a legend, you know. This room was the Sultan´s bedroom. And it was altered in the 16th century. The tiles you can see in the hall were added, and the decorative plasterwork was restored. All the rest is fantasy and legend, for the likes of spirits like me…



(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Carlos Madrid (2012)

Picture: The Abencerrajes’ Dome
Source: Wikipedia
Author: jvwpc (2004)
Licence:Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic