Tuesday, November 01, 2011

France/Spain 2011 - Day 7, Part 2 - Zaragoza: Aljafería Palace

"To be amused by what you read--that is the great spring of happy quotations." - C. E. Montague

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France/Spain 2011
Day 7 - 23rd March - Zaragoza: Aljafería Palace
(Part 2)

I then headed to the Aljafería Palace.

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Cheap English classes

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La Plaza de Europa

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Aljafería Palace, part of Mudejar Architecture of Aragon

Even from here you can see arches on its ramparts, which are weird.

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Grassy moat

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Flowering shrubs in moat

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Entrance

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Courtyard

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Nice arch, but this is where the Cortes (regional parliament) of Aragon meets

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Intricate Islamic/Islamic-influenced stonework

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This is the Salon Del Oro O de Los Marmoles (Gold Salon of the Marbles, I think)

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Stonework at the side
As with other Islamic architecture it's focused on geometric shapes

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Patio de Santa Isabel. She was born in the palace.

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Oratorio (Oratory)

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Restos de La Alberca Sur (Remains of the South Pool)

In one indoor chamber we could access, they had:

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Mixtilinear arch (with English translation!)
Unfortunately this was a reproduction as the original was in Madrid. Wth.

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Composite Capital (reproduction)

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Restos de La Alberca Sur again

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Sheltered walkway

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Escudo (Coat of Arms)

Apparently you can visit the Troubadour Tower (the oldest bit) but it didn't seem to be on the tour route when I was there.

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Block with Geometric design

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On geometry in Islamic art

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On Islamic architecture as calligraphy

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#1 is at the bottom and #2 and #3 follow in a clockwise order
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