Exterior view

Constructed on a plateau that overlooks the city of Granada, the Alhambra was built chiefly between 1238 and 1358, in the reigns of Ibn al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, and his successors. After the expulsion of the Moors in 1492, much of the interior was effaced and the furniture was ruined or removed. Charles V, who ruled in Spain as Charles I (1516–56), rebuilt portions in the Renaissance style and destroyed part of the Alhambra in order to build an Italianate palace.

Designed by the Spaniard Pedro Machuca in 1526, who had studied in Italy, the Palace of Charles V was never completed, although work on it continued throughout most of the 16th century. The palace is square in plan with a huge central circular court (30 metres in diameter), which was intended for bullfights and tournaments. The plan is, therefore, fully Renaissance, being centralized and symmetrical; it is organized on cross-axes formed by the four entrances, one in the centre of each side. The façade shows a full understanding of the principles of Italian Renaissance design in its superimposition of orders and in the alternating rhythm of the triangular and segmental pediments above the windows of the second story. The interior court is surrounded by a colonnade with a similar superimposition of Doric and Ionic.

View the ground plan of the Palace of Charles V, Granada.