271
RESTORATION
INTERVENTION PERFORMED IN
THE GALERIA DEL GRUTESCO
OF THE REAL ALCÁZAR OF SEVILLE
Almudena Muñoz García, Architect / Alberto Atanasio Guisado, Architect
Pages 114-141
1. BACKGROUND
T
he
Galería del Grutesco
is placed at the current
Alcázar
as
an axis that runs from north to south, leaving the “
Jar-
dines Antiguos
” in the west and the “
Jardines Nuevos
” in
the east. This
Galería
is approximately 150 metres long.
It starts in
Puerta de Marchena
, pointing its eastern façade towards
the
Estanque de Mercurio
and it finishes with a small perpendicular
section to the longitudinal route that is the limit of the
Jardín de la
Alcoba
. As we follow the route of the
Galería
, we can see the
Fuente
de la Fama
, establishing the longitudinal axis of
Jardín de las Damas
in the middle, and also the
Puerta del Privilegio
, which is the access
from the
Jardín de la Alcoba
to the old
Huerta del Retiro
. The
Grutesco
shows a slight spin halfway, which coincides with the wall that sepa-
rates
Damas
from
Alcoba
. This, seen from its front perspective, helps
to define the traces of the successive enlargements of the gardens,
whose creation started at the end of the 16th century. In addition,
the western façade determines the basis which allows us to establish
the different axial and visual connections in the conFiguretion of
these gardens —Figure 1—.
Historically, the transformation of the urban Almohad rampart for
the construction of the
Grutesco
took place at the beginning of the
17th century, under command of Vermondo Resta, who was the
leading master of the
Alcázar
. The erection of this rampart is dated
between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th
century. It was made with rammed earth and it had an external bar-
bican. If we look at the plan made by Olavide in 1771, the first man
who represented the urban fence of Seville1, the section was part of
a bigger one that started at the
Torre del Agua
—practically perpen-
dicular to the
Muralla del Agua
—and finished at the P
uerta de San
Fernando,
where it did a break in acute angle so as to run parallel to
the T
agarete
towards the P
uerta de Jerez
—Figure 2—.
Originally, the rampart had vegetable gardens on both sides. In the
16th century, the western vegetable gardens became gardens, while
the ones in the other side —
Huertas del Retiro
— became gardens
later at the beginning of the 20th century.
Going back to the urban Almohad wall, in the interior of the palatial
ensemble the section of the rampart that corresponds to the
Grutesco
closed the
Recinto IV
of the
Alcázar
, and together with the
Recinto V
shaped the external
Alcazaba
of the initial Almohad and abadi centre.
This area, which at its early stage was the main access from the Bu-
haira road, was relegated to a second plane after the enlargement of
the
Alcázar
and its rampart towards the Guadalquivir
2
—Figure 3—.
That high route across the rampart’s passage, from the
Torre del Oro
until the
Puerta de Jerez
, was the one that Philip III should have done
during his visit to the city. Although that visit never took place, the
announcement of his visit and the pertinent preparation led to one
of the most important transformation periods of the
Alcázar
:
