Ruggles: Inventing the Alhambra (1-21)
The article is immensely descriptive and guides us through a history of those who have walked through or even inhabited that Alhambra. It starts off describing the different dynasties that have ruled throughout– I was surprised to see that at one point even the French had control of the magnificent city. Throughout the text, the author seems to place emphasis on the features of the Alhambra that no longer stand. For example, she mentions features that were torn down to make room for Charles V Palace. Ruggles really tries to create an image of the Alhambra as it was in its original form before alterations and conquests from others. For example, the Palace of the Lions and Commares have easy access to one another but originally the Palace of the Lions was closed off by a door and not as visible to see. She spends some time talking about tourism in the Alhambra and how people consequently damage the structure although they have good intentions. She also talks about ownership of the Alhambra throughout the ages and how people could “rent” rooms, which consequently led to many relics being removed from the palace. The remainder of the article is spent as a criticism of how the restoration of the Alhambra is not as authentic as it is made out to be. However, she wraps the article up on a positive note talking about Torres Balbás, and archeological architect, who he praises. Ruggles states that Balbás’ goal, as an archeological architect, when restoring the Alhambra was to fill in the missing pieces with aesthetic coherence. Unfortunately, Balbás was banned from further work in the Alhambra during the Franco period, but this did not stop him from writing about how fundamental archeological evidence was in restorations of the Alhambra.