Entranceway to the palace of Charles V in the Alhambra. When Granada finally fell to Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492, the Alhambra was designated a royal palace for the Christian royalty—a status that it was to retain until 1868. When Charles V assumed kingship, he commissioned the architect Pedro Machuca to build a Renaissance style palace for him in the Alhambra in 1526. The work however was abandoned after several fruitless attempts at completion. It was only in the twentieth century that the work commissioned by Charles was completed. Due to its location in the middle of the Alhambra, the palace has traditionally been disparaged and criticized. However, in the words of Robert Irwin: “In fact it is a fine, imposing building, but on the wrong site.”- SK
Photograph created 1963. Photograph processed September 1963. Formerly catalogued as B49.267, BV.017. Notes written on the slide or index: Gateway of Charles V.
