School of Arabic Studies
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The School of Arabic Studies (in Spanish Escuela de Estudios Árabes, EEA) is a research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) with headquarters at the Houses of the Chapiz in Granada.
This building, declared Object of Cultural Interest according to Spanish legislation, is made up of two former Morisco houses located in the well-known Granada district of Albaicín. The School was born in 1932, when the Schools of Arabic Studies of Madrid and Granada were created with the aim of "protecting and encouraging Arabic studies in Spain". In its early stages, the Granada School was entitled to teach Arabic language and civilization, Hebrew language, Muslim cultural and political history, Islamic law and institutions, Arabic dialectology, art and archaeology. In 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, the School became a part of the newly created Spanish National Research Council and, consequently, it was devoted to research according to the guidelines of this institution. The School of Arabic Studies of Granada is nowadays the only Institute that keeps the original name, after the School of Madrid took other names, and the only CSIC Institute entirely devoted to Arabic studies. The School has a sole department, called "Department of Arabic Studies", which is made up of four research groups dealing with history of al-Andalus, Arabic historiography, medieval archaeology, Islamic architecture, natural science in al-Andalus, Arabic biographical literature, Islamic law, and edition and translation of Arabic texts.
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[edit] The Houses of the Chapiz - Introduction
Located in the corner where Cuesta del Chapiz and Camino del Sacromonte meet, the Houses of the Chapiz occupy a wide plot including an orchard and a garden. They are usually called House of the Chapiz, in singular, although it is more accurate to use the plural, since they are two houses with different origins. This mistake has been produced by the fact that they share an aisle located between both houses, thus looking like one house with two courtyards. However, its architectural plan and documentary evidence dating from the 16th century show that there were two independent residential units.
The original entry was in Placeta del Peso de la Harina, in the aforementioned corner, through a space shared by both houses that ended at the entrance vestibule to the main house. The latter appears to be built on the remains of a 14th-century Nasrid palace, some of whose plans and several other elements have been preserved. They were reused when the house was rebuilt at the beginning of the 16th century by the Morisco Lorenzo el Chapiz, whose name has survived both in the houses and in the street. In the same period, his brother-in-law Hernán López el Ferí built the other house, of smaller size and probably completely new.
Due to these circumstances, both houses constitute a very valuable evidence to evaluate the typological evolution of the Nasrid domestic architecture from its mature stage to the Morisco period (16th century), which could be considered its last phase.
[edit] The House of Lorenzo el Chapiz
The main house is built around a big rectangular courtyard, whose longest sides align with the north-south direction. In the Nasrid period it would have had aisles with rooms on four sides. The smallest sides had porticos with five arches. The principal rooms would have been located in these sides, probably on the ground floor only. Nowadays, only the northern aisle, the eastern and the beginning of the western have been preserved. The typological pattern of a closed courtyard was already pointed out by L. Torres Balbás, the architect who directed the rehabilitation works of the building between 1929 and 1932 in order to settle there the recently created School of Arabic Studies.
In the center of the courtyard the original pool, which has large proportions, has been preserved. The white marble columns that support the arches of the northern portico are reused Nasrid elements as well. Behind the central arch is the portal to the principal room of the house. The beautiful gorroneras (upper hinges) of its door, currently at the Museum of the Alhambra, are made of marble.
When Lorenzo el Chapiz decided to adapt the house to the needs and tastes of his days, he constructed the upper floor in three sides of the courtyard. Probably, he did not do the same on the southern side, since by doing this he would have lost the excellent views of the Alhambra and Generalife from the corridor. The arrangement of these volumes was accurately pictured by the British Richard Ford in 1931-33. In the southern aisle was a great window looking toward the Generalife, whose rich plaster decoration and fortunate site inspired an engraving by John F. Lewis in those years. The window attained so much fame that, some years later, it went on a non-return trip to the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.
The corridors are built of wood with turned railing balusters that denote influence of the Renaissance style. The eastern corridor was thoroughly remade during the restoration works, in accordance with the existing remains. The main rooms of the first floor are covered with large wood ceilings made according to the collar-beam roof system. It shares the western room with the house of Hernán López el Ferí.
[edit] The House of Hernán López el Ferí
The second Morisco house, of smaller size, has a vestibule with uncentered doors, in order to hinder direct view of its rectangular courtyard with a small pool in the center. The functional disposition of the house follows the Mudéjar building tradition, with wood galleries on the four sides of the courtyard, allowing easy access to all the rooms of the upper floor.
Under the northern aisle is a cistern, used to store the water that arrived at the house from the Acequia de Aynadamar (Channel of Aynadamar). The water was used for human consumption. It was also used to water the orchard, located to the east and arranged in several terraces.
At the beginning of the 1930s the lower terrace was transformed into a garden with a design similar to those made in the Alhambra and the Generalife by the same architect.
The corridors of the smallest house have ornamental features slightly different from those of the other house, although they show the mixture of Nasrid, Gothic and Renaissance styles characteristic of the Mudéjar in Granada.
Coordinates: 37°10′51″N 3°35′18″W / 37.180848°N 3.588467°W
