The famous Lions Court at the Alhambra

The Lions Court (“Patio de los Leones”) is probably the most famous place of the Alhambra. It owes its name to the twelve water-spitting lions of the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. They stand around a large twelve-cornered basin that they carry. This white marble fountain is one of the most important examples of Muslim sculpture. A poem by Ibn Zamrak is carved into the edge of the pool.

At the beginning of the 17th At the end of the 19th century, another basin was installed, which today stands in the garden on the fortress wall, together with the water nozzle, which was later added according to the indentation.

Löwenhof in Alhambra

Mohammed V had this farm built. It is rectangular and surrounded by a colonnade in the style of the Christian cloister, which is unlike the typical Muslim-Andalusian farms, but more similar to the Myrtenhof.

The portico consists of 124 columns of white marble with a slender shaft, which has numerous rings in the upper part and has a cube-shaped chapter and a large abacus decorated with inscriptions and arabesques.

Under the carved wooden frieze are stilt arches made of plaster, only the arches of the pavilions and on the longer sides are decorated with stalactites, the spandrilles with broken diamond patterns. The central arches of the longer sides are higher than the lateral ones, their archival tees are decorated with stalactites, the spandrilles with arabesques. These arches connect the courtyard with the Abencerrajes Hall and the Two Sisters Hall.

Above them are the rooms of the Sultan’s wives. In the middle of the shorter porticoes there are pavilions that stand in the courtyard. Its base area is square, the wooden dome inside is semicircular.

The legend of the 12 Lions of the Alhambra

The Alhambra is full of legends, which reinforce the magic of the castle.

The legend tells that an Arab princes, whose name was Zaira came to the kindom of Granada with her father. Zara was a young beatiful woman with dark eyes and her father didn’t allow her to leave the palace in order to protect her.

One day a young Christian of name Arturo jumped over the walls into the gardens. He said, he had been long time watching from the farness and had felt in love with her.

Zaira also felt in love with the courageous Christian who was risking his life to declare his love to the maurish pricess. She also said, she would fly with him the day after.

But the king found out the plan and ordered to find the young Christian, who was going to be executed the next morning.

The princess could not stop to mourn for her beloved. By chance she discovered a diary of her father in which he said, that he was not her father, but had killed her real parents.

She then called together the King in the courtyjard of the palace of Muhamad V to ask for an explatantion.

The king said: “Indeed I am not your father”. Zaira’s eyes filled with tears of bitterness and anger after this revelation.

Tightly clutching the talisman that hung from her neck since she was a baby, the fury of a lion took her body and activated the curse that the gift from his mother kept, making the king and his eleven guards in twelve stone lions.

Zaira freed Arturo from his chains, fled the city and lived happily for the rest of their lives.

Since then this courtyard of the Alhambra is called The Court of the Lions (El Patio de los Leones).