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About aljaferia
Aljaferia Castle - Muslim Spain makes its mark at the Aljafería, the country's finest Muslim-era edifice outside Andalucía. The Aljaferia was built as a pleasure palace for Zaragoza's Muslim rulers in the 11th century. From the 12th century Zaragoza's Christian rulers made alterations, and in the 1490s ...
Christian Palace & Throne Room - Moving upstairs, you pass through rooms of the Palacio Mudéjar, added by Christian rulers in the 12th to 14th centuries, then to the Catholic Monarchs' palace, which, as though by way of riposte to the Muslim finery below, contains some exquisite Mudéjar coffered ceilings, especially ...
Mihrab - Also opening off the northern porch is a small, octagonal oratorio (prayer room), with a magnificent horseshoe-arched doorway leading into its mihrab (prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca). The finely chiselled floral motifs, Arabic inscriptions from the Quran and pleasingly simple cupola ...
Patio de Santa Isabel - Inside the main gate, cross the rather dull introductory courtyard into a second, the Patio de Santa Isabel, once the central courtyard of the Muslim palace. Here you are confronted to north and south by the exquisite interwoven arches typical of the opulence and geometric mastery of Muslim ...
Torre del Trovador - The oldest construction of the Aljaferia is called Troubadour Tower. The tower received this name from Antonio Garcia Gutierrez’s 1836 romantic drama The Troubadour. The drama was converted into a libretto for Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore in 1853.
The tower is a defensive ...