The reigning Castilian style ;)
A whole series of sections with a strong Castilian style awaits us after visiting the Palacio de los Leones. The sections known as the “Habitaciones de Carlos V” in Spanish were built while the Palace of Carlos V was being finished and the curious thing is that the King never got to settle there.
The impact of seeing the austerity of this enclosure is strong, when coming from such a dreamy place as the Daraxa or Lindajara Gazebos. One cannot help but feel sad to think that part of the original constructions were destroyed or transformed to create these sections. It is a story that repeats itself here, and anywhere else in the world, the conqueror tries to erase all traces of the conquered. Luckily, beauty won over barbarity and they did not destroy all the Nasrid Palaces!
The remarkable thing about these rooms is the use it gave in the 19th century, to the writer Washington Irving to settle and write "Tales of the Alhambra", a fact commemorated thanks to a plaque at the entrance. Maybe his writings helped to conserve this place!
After going through some austere sections which one has to visit in order to understand the process of history, we arrive at the Peinador de la Reina (Queens’ dresser), another transformed section which consists of a gallery and a room where Queen Isabel resided, previously called Sala de la Estufa (Stove Room), it is actually one of the few notable places from the expanded sections. The fresco paintings and the murals of the battles of Carlos V in Turkey are exquisite, but most of all, the most incredible part of this place is the spectacular views of Sacromonte and the Darro River from the narrow and cosy gallery of the Peinador.
