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RESTORATION
RESTORATION OF THE ISLAMIC CEILING (ALFARJE)
OF THE KING IN THE HIGH ROYAL CHAMBERS
Gregorio Manuel Mora Vicente
Doctor Archaeologist
Inmaculada Ramírez López
Curator-Restorer
Pages 142-173
THE ERRANT CEILING
Regarding the origin of the alfarje at the King’s Office in
the High Royal Chambers of the Alcazar of Seville.
I
f any singularity can be applied to most ceilings of the High
Royal Chambers of the Alcazar is the removal and relocation
they suffered at some point in their physical history. The fact
is that most of them were relocated within the Alcazar itself,
carried from the ground floor to the new floor that took shape over
the centuries, but, upon arriving at the King’s Office, the vision of
a splendid polychrome alfarje with heraldic emblems and uncom-
mon portraits confuses right away. What are the representations
of the Solis family doing in an alfarje of the Alcazar? This question
initiated and exciting investigation to determine how this surpris-
ing specimen ended up in this room.
The King’s Office is located in the North bay of the
Patio de las Don-
cellas
, on its western extreme, and is part of the High Royal Cham-
bers private rooms on the main floor of the palace. It is a square
room of nearly six metres long with access from the hall of the Sala
de Audiencias and lights towards the galleries of the patios de las
Doncellas and de las Muñecas.
The bedroom was part of the Mudejar palace original project, in-
tegrated between the main chambers, and stayed during the 16
th
century in a space called
Salón de Hércules
or
de las Cinco Cuadras
.
Following the reorganization of the Royal family rooms during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the memory of this name was
lost, and it got difficult to identify its parts, which are referred to
as “Salones” around the inner courtyards of the palace. Throughout
that period, the area lost its original purpose and its roofs were re-
placed by flat ceilings, and so have remained to the present day, ex-
cept for the one covering the King’s Office, which has a polychrome
alfarje with an
ataujerado
pane at its centre.
The restoration of this ceiling was carried out in 2013 following a
recovery plan for the ceilings of the High Royal Chambers which
had not been replaced in the Bourbon era
1
. Among the set, twelve
ceilings were identified, most of them were jointed rafters frame-
works in the Mudejar tradition, two Renaissance styled ceilings and
another two alfarjes among which our example was. After the first
inspection of the ceiling, something caught our attention. Unlike
the rest of examples from the Alcazar, it had not been repainted dur-
ing the historical restorations carried out over the woodwork of the
building, which multiplied the possibilities of obtaining information
on the original image.
