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CHAPfERFIVE

The Origin of the Patios and Gardens of the IslamicPeriod in Sp,ain and Portugal./lidio A. De Araujo

'Both the art and the architecture ofgardens are strongly influenced by theecological conditions prevailing in thecountry where they are practised.From the 8th century onwards it sohappened that the area covered by Is-lamic expansion closely coincided withthe ecological areatraditionally knownas "Mediterranean", and that within theIberian Peninsula Ithe two areas wereexactly coextensive. It is for this reasonthat the effects of Islamic and of Medi-terranean influence are so frequentlyconfused, bath with each other and withthose of the Roman culture lying belowsurface-level in the countries of thearea.Portugal occupies the piece of landwhich was both the Lusitania of Romantimes and the Garbe of Arabian Anda-lusia, and consequently has the advan-tage of the cultural experience of thetwo civilizations. It further lies at thejunction of the two ecological zones ofEurope, the Mediterranean area andthat of the North Atlantic. We are thusin a privileged position to study theconvergence of the different influenesaffecting our gardens, though unfortu-nately, since the traces it has left havebeen inadequately studied as yet, ourarchaeological and historical informa-tion on the presence of Islam in ourcountry is insufficient. I will neverthe-less try to give you a persona! view of

the origins of the patios, gardens and"leisure resorts" of the Islamic periodin the Peninsula.lst to the 4th centuriesIn the ruins of Conimbriga a numberof impluvia and peristyles have So forbeen discovered which I consider to beof great importance for an understand-ing of the subsequent evolution of theart of the patio in the lberian Peninsula.In thes peristyles water -in ponds ortanks -plays as essential a part as theflower-beds in the composition of thewhole, and sculpture does not seem tohave bad the same importance as else-where-at Pompe i, for instance.At Conimbriga and Emerita Augustawe begin to find the main features weshall be meeting again in the patios ofthe Islamic period in the Mediterraneanarea, namely, ponds, flower-beds, wa-ter-jets and narrow irrigation canaIs.Particularly striking is the extent towhich two peristyles at Conimbrigaresemble he "patio de a Machuca" andone of the Partal patios in the Alhambraat Granada (See Nos. III and V of theseven patios shown on the plan ofConimbriga in Fig. I)Sth to the 7th centuriesThe disintegration of the RomanEmpire in the fifth century as a result ofthe migrations of German, Slavic andMongol tribes bad disastrous effects onthe urban civilization with bad spread

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lidio A. De Araujo

Ictly into those two distinct ecologicalregions we are concemed with.At the close of the most active periodof the migrations we find the Swabi~sestablished n Lusitania with their capi-tal at Bracara, and the Visigoths, withtheirs at Toledo, occpying all the rest ofthe peninsula, with the exception of thesouthemmost part which for sevendec-ades was to remain a province of theByzantine Empire. During the 6th cen-tury the Visigothic Monarchy succeededin dominating the entire Peninsula.Fr~m the works of the 6th and 7thcenturies which have corne down to us,whether from Swabian or Visigoth ter-ritory , it may be seen that architectscontinued to use the techniques andfollow the ru es adopted by their Ro-man predecessors, though the exist-ence of cultural contacts with the rest ofthe Mediterranean world is definitelyproved. A good illustration is the smallchurch of San Frutuoso near Braga inPortugal (6th century), while thechurches of Lourosa and Balsmao asweIl as those of Banhos and Bande inSpain, with their generalized use of theround horseshoe arch and the exuber-ant decoration of an architectural fea-ture here and there, would seem torepresent a local development of Ro-man architecture; and the same mighthave been true of the patios of theperiod.8th to the lOth centuriesAt the beginning of the 8th century ,when the Mediterranean areas of thePeninsula were occupied by Arab andBerber Muslim warriors, the centralmountain barrier became a politicalfrontier. Whereas to the south, stretch-ing across into North Africa, theCaliphate of Cordoba remainedunrestrictedly open to cultural contactswith other Mediterranean peoples,some

throughout the provinces. The sack ofBracara, Aeminium, Conimbriga andother Lusitanian towns by the Swabians,and of the rest of the Peninsula by theAlans and Vandals, led to their almostcomplete abandonment, while, manyother towns were ruined owing to thedisorganizationof inter-regional com-merce, with the result that the inhabit-ants ofthese and other provinces re-verted to an agricultural and autarkiceconomy.Another result of what the Romansreferred to as he "barbarian invasions"was the separation of the Roman world,both geographically and ecologically,into two completely different sphereswhose cpltural development was to be-corne mutually independent. Therewere, on the one hand, the sunlit coun-tries of the Mediterranean sea boardwith their warm and dry climate which,under the political hegemony first ofByzantium and then of the ArabCaliphates, produced an art which wasa development of the Roman. Mean-while that seething cauldron whichwas Central Europe continued, in itsevergrecn surroundings and ts wet andmisty climate, to turn out an art derivedequally from that of the Roman Em-pire; but here, in isolation from theculture of the Mediterranean world andunder the influence of the Christianfaith, the pattern of development wasvery different.Belonging, as it did geographicullyto both worlds, the peninsuJawas ableto share n thedevelopment of each ofthe two parallel trends. Indeed, the bar-rier fonned by the Guadarrama, Gredosand Ga~mQPntains in Spain and by theEstrella, Buaco and Buarcos moun-tains in Portugal, and ruQming south-westftom the rrrenees to the Cape ofMondego, separates the country ex-64

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The Origin of the Patios and Gardens of the Islamic Period in Spain and Portugal.

nonns handed down from the Visigothperiod had remained almost unchanged.The planting oftrees in the patio is saidto be a peculiarity of the mosques ofAndalusia, while the arrangement bywhich the water which is to irrigate thetrees and cool the atmosphere runsthrough a network of artificial canaIs salready to be seen n a Roman peristyleat Emerita Augusta (The technique forchannelling the waterwas subsequentlywidelyusedin Portuguesegardensdownto the 17th century).It was in the town of Madina-al-Zahra, built, with its severalpalaces,over a period which began in936 A.D. and was destroyed in 1010A.D., that the local artists had theirgreat opportunity as garden-designers;in the vicinity of one of the great paI-aces they laid out a large garden in-tended both for the growing of fruit andvegetables and as a place for leisure. Its

.architecture reveals the pennanency ofthat trend in the direction of exuberantdecorati

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.'Patio dos Cisnes", Palais de SintraIlPatio dos Cisnes ", The Palace of Sintra67

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As they carne south the Christianprinces brought with them an art whichhad its origin in the Roman traditionjust as much as the architecture theywere to find in the Mediterranean areaitself. However, by the 12th and 13thcenturies the two trends, though stem-ming from one and the sarne root, hadproduced completely different styles,as may be seen by comparing the littlemosques and "alcaovas" of the Garbewith the cathedralsand royal residencesof the kingdoms of the north. Here thepatios generally had a flagged pavingand a plain fountain, weIl or cistem inthe centre; no decorative garden of theperiod is known anywhere in the area.14th centuryThe Christian kings transferred theircourts to the Mediterranean region andeventually ,as they adapted hemselvesto local ecological conditions, adoptedthe local style of architecture both fortheir palac:esand for domestic use ingeneral. For cathedrals and monasterychurches the Romanesque style of thenorth had been imposed, but even thiswas adapted to suit the new materialsand climate.In Portugal King Dinis had resi-dences built for himself in Leiris andEstremoz and exisient ones improved,and his grandson Pedro I built royalresidences n Serra das Pescaris and inBelas. The latter has a patio now en-tirely paved with small stones.About the same time -i. e. between1350 and 1369 -the King of Castile(another PedroI) had the Alcazar atSeville altered by adding a few extemalplanted court yards immediately adja-cent to the palace. These were to be thefirst small pleasure gardens, forerun-ners of the "hortus conclusus" whichwas to spread through Europe on sowide a scale n the 15th century.

in 1031 and the division of the CordobaCaliphate into several small kingdomsled to the construction of buildings ofsomeimportanceinthecapita1softhesekingdoms and of the "taifas" , or smallerrealms, dependenton them. Of particu-lar interestare, in Seville, the .wo big-gest and oldest patios, the Patio delAlcazar Viejo (llth century) and thePatio del Crucero (12th century) de-scribed to us in his report by Mr.R.Martos. Also in Seville are the two~'hortos eales" -one near the Alcazarand the other near he "Cartuja" -whichillustrate the survival of the Romantradition of "leisure resorts". ln thiscase hey are specially designe,d o suitflat ground liable to flooding by theswollen waters of the Guadalquivir andraised paths overlook the gardenstherilselves.ln southem Portugal the towns ofSilves, Mertola, Ossonoba in the ormerkingdom of Seville), Lisbon, andperhaaps Santarm and Evora (king-dom of Badajoz) were capitals of"taifas", and remains of their"alcovas" are still to be seen. Thoseat Evora, Sintra and Vila Vicosa haveretained their patios, but thesehave notyet been studied archaeologically. Spe-cial mention must be made of the Patiodos Cisnes at the "alcova" of Sintrawith its sunken pool, built either dur-ing the 12th century or in the periodimmediately preceding it.It was in the 12th and early 13thcenturies (the process being completedby 1238A.D.)thattheChristianprincesand their military chiefs moved south-wards to the Mediterranean section ofthe Peninsula and extended heir domi-nation over the populations which hadbeen living under Muslim rule, theKingdom of Granada alone remainingMuslim until1492 A.D.68

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But in the 14th century the Muslimprinces of Granada were still present inthe country too, and early in the centurythey built that most beautiful exampleof the "leisure resort", the Generalifewith its interesting patios, and its waterstairway in which the Roman traditionis enriched by Hispano-Arab sensibil-ity and Hispano-Arab decoration.ln the patios of the Alhambra, as inthe Machuca patio and in several ofthose in the Partal Gardens, we canrecognize genuine products of theH$pano-Roman tradition. ln others thecentral feature is a pool set level withthe ground instead of a tank, and thisseems to be an innovation to be attrib-uted to Arab sensibility. The Court ofthe Lions, builtbetween 1353 and 1391,likewise follows the Roman traditionof the central foumtain surrounded byflower-beds.As Lvi Provenal says, the art ofthe Maghreb in mediaval times wasessentially the work .of Peninsular art-ists.

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I Ilidio A. De Araujo

Cett communication se fonde sur le principe que l'art des jardins, ainsi quel' architecture, sont des arts fortement influencs par les conditions cologiquescaractrisant les rgions o ils se dveloppent. L'orateur a appel l'attention surle fait que, partir du Sme sicle, on peut remarquer une troite concidenceentre l're de l'expansion musulmane et la zone cologique traditionnellementconsidre comme mditerranenne. Dans la pninsule hispanique, cetteconcidence est parfaite.Il en rsulte que l'on attribue souvent l'Islam des phnomnes dont l'originedoit tre cherche dans l'influence mditerranenne, parfois dans la civilisationromaine et, aussi, dans les cultures rgionales sous-jacentes la culture islamiquedans la zone considre.Parlant des patios jardins construits au Portugal, entre le 1er et le XIVmesicles, l'auteur conclut qu'il ne s'agit pas de ardins islamiques et que les jardinsamnags au Portugal cett poque taient de type mditerranen quoique l' ony voyait quelques lments emprunts au monde musulman.

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