Granada: A Spanish Perspective

             On this week’s trip I will be comparing Santa Fe Granada and Granada. I will see the transformation in architectural design and organization between the old city of Granada, and the newer city of Santa Fe Granada. I am expecting to see different layouts, showing the dominance of conquest and the influence of the monarchs.

When travelling through Granada, the city seemed to have grown organically, much like that of Rome, and some medieval cities. Granada looks to me like an unorganized city where the social structure resembles the disarray of the layout.  

                On the other hand, when looking at Santa Fe Granada, it is basically a grid pattern, creating a very organized system. It reminds me of some of the areas I have previously gone to such as Timgad and other colonies of the Roman Empire. This layout shows the need for a fortified structure for a degree of defense. This place was destroyed and conquered by the Christian monarchs, showing the importance of a strong military presence. Since Santa Fe was an area reconquered by the Christians, the Christians would have wanted to establish this same element of strong military presence and control over the population. A grid layout includes many more important functions. The importances include felicitating order through ensuring certain buildings of importance are in the core, while others are in the outskirts. They also control the flow of people in the city, as well as stand for defense mechanisms, and an organization of the distribution of resources. The overall purpose I believe though is to control society through a hierarchy of space like we have seen in many of my previous trips.

               

            When looking at some of the identities in Granada, I was able to see through the Cathedral Granada many unique features describing the Spanish architecture. First, the cathedral was larger than the rest of the area, making me think it was a focal point of the area, and a point of direction. You can also see the importance that art and architectural design played in this culture. Finally, while looking at other places such as the Courtyard in the Alhambra, the ornate designs and overall beauty shows the importance of power within the compounds, as well as the conquered influence on the area.

                Overall, I am able to say that old Granada was organic in nature much like that of Rome in which I travelled to earlier in my blog, and Santa Fe Granada has a more grid-like organization like Pikillacta and Timgad. The organization of the newer Granada stands for many importances, and shows the development and use of land over time.