ShoppingScapes´13, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e TecnologiasLisboa, May 2013

The Alcaicería of Granada (Spain)From a silk trade center to a post-touristic shopping-scapeJuan Antonio Sánchez MuñozArchitect, independent researcher / kauharquitectos@gmail.com

Editor (English text) & translation of quotes: Vincent Morales Garoffolo

“We have been everywhere. We have seen nothing”Humbet Humbert in Lolita (Nabokov, 1955)

- Introduction: A postcard from Granada- What is an Alcaicería? The origin- Alcaicerías in Al-Andalus and Christian Spain: the architectural typology- A chronicle of The Alcaicería of Granada- The Alcaicería today: a post-touristic shopping scape

Alcaicería. Video by David Snakeskin, 20012 / courtesy of the artist http://vimeo.com/46514906

La Alcaicería, Granada, Spain. 2013

Introduction: a postcard from Granada

Granada

Lisbon

Granada, Spain

Granada272,730 inhabitants (2011)

Granada: midsized city

Albaicín

Alhambra

Centro

Touristic areas in Granada

Alhambra

Cathedral

Most visited monuments: Alhambra & Cathedral [Source: Observatorio Turístico de Granada, 2010]

Alhambra:2.200,000 visitors (2012)

Alhambra, hotspot [Source: Patronato Alhambra, 2012]

Most visited monuments in Spain: Alhambra, Prado, Sagrada Familia

Granada

Madrid

Barcelona

Medieval Arabs geographers and travellers- Abd al-Malik ben Habib (853)- Ahmad ben Muhammad ben

Musa al Razi (885-955)- Abd Allah (c. 1056)- Abu Ubayd al-Bakri (1094)- Abu Wahid Muhammad al-

Saqundi (1231)- Ibn Idhari (s. XIII-XIV)- Al-Nuwayri (1278-1332)- Lizan al-Din ben al-Jatib

(1313-1374)- Abd al-Rahman ben Jaldun

(1332-1404)- Ahmad ben Muhammad al-

Maqqaru (1631)…

Christian travellers15th Century- Jerónimo Münzer- Señor de Montigny- Antonio de Lalaing- Jorge de Ehingen- Andrea Navagiero- Sobieski- Diego de Cuelbis- Villuga…

16th and 17th Centuries- France: Señor de Moroonys,

Bertaut and Martin- England: William Lithgow,

Willoughby, Howell and Ellin Veryard

- Germany: the Elector Palatine Frederick II, Welsch

- Flanders: Anton Van den Wyngaerde, Joris Hoefnagel

…18th Century- Spain: Perez Bayer, Ponz and

Conde de Maule- Germany: Adam Ebert (Aulus

Apronius), Wolfgang Bayer and Carl Cristopher Plüer

- England: Cristopher Hervey, Richard Twis, Henry Swinburne, Joseph Townsend and John Talbot Dillon

- France: Etienne Silhouette, Jean Francois Peyron and Nicolas Massias

…19th Century: the peak point of this curiosity, as Granada became a center of a pilgrimage for writers and painters: George Borrow, Washington Irving, Gautier, Chateaubriand, David Roberts, Dumas, Giraud, Desbarrelees,...

Granada and tourism – early travellers

Cuentos de La Alhambra / Tales of the Alhambra. W. Irving, 1852

Time Lapse Alhambra Sunset, 2012. Video by David Snakeskin, 20012 / courtesy of the artist http://vimeo.com/46514905

The myth of Granada (Calatrava, 2002)

El cuento de la Alhambra, 2006. Valeriano López / Courtesy of the artist

The romantic and the collective tourist gaze

The ‘silk trade’ adds extra, more fanciful connotations to the Alcaicería

Roman fresco / ‘Silk route’ map (Wikipedia) / Chinese engraving

What is an Alcaicería? The origin

ḲAYSĀRIYYA: the name of a large system of public buildings laid out in the form of cloisters with shops, workshops, warehouses and frequently also living-rooms" (Streck, 1913-1936)

Encyclopedia of Islam

Places derive from kaysariyya-Cairo-Beirut- Damascus- Aleppo- Mosul- Al-Salamiyya- Irbil- Baghdad- Isfahan- Algiers- Fez- Spain

The word was used for similar commercial structures

The Medieval Arab World. From 750 to 1700. Maps from Kantara Project – Mediterranean Heritage

"Se diría que esta plaza es una pequeña ciudad, con murallas dotadas de doce puertas, cada una de las cuales está atravesada que no permite la entrada de caballos ni de otras caballerías. (...) Se divide el recinto de la plaza en quince partes. (...) Dos están destinadas a los traficantes de las sedas, con lado para los vendedores de flecos, cordones y otros adornos (...), y otro cuartel para los de las sedas teñidas para camisas, fundas de almohada y otras prendas. (...) Continúan en la plaza otros dos sectores donde se vende la pañería de lana llegada de Europa, siendo granadinos todos estos mercaderes. También se despachan allí géneros de seda, cofias caseras y sedas crudas. (...)”

Leo Africanus (c.1500) – Alcaicería of Fez

The Alcaicería was devoted to textiles and specifically to silk, manufactured or raw

Descripción general del África, y de las cosas peregrinas que allí hay. Juan León Africano; c.1500

The commercial institution & the architectonic typology

Kayseriye (Bezestan); Mardin, Turkey

Alcaicerías in Al-Andalus and Christian Spain: the architectural typology

A cluster of shops joined up with other administrative facilities located in the centre of the main Moorish Iberian cities (Balbas, 1949)

Granada

Toledo

Valencia

Palma

Córdoba

Seville

Málaga Velez-Málaga

An enclosed merchandising area with limited opening hours

Alcaicería de la seda, Sevilla. Plano de Sevilla, Pablo Olavide[1711]

Following different layouts: a street, a patio with arcades or a complex with narrow streets

Alcaicería, Sevilla. Hypothetical reconstruction, Juan Carlos Hernández Nuñez [Laboratorio de Arte, 7; 1994]

Alcaicería, Sevilla. Hypothesis drawn on aerial view, Sergio Palma [Sevilla en estampas, 2010]

Clearly delimitated with monitored gates with a strict control of their use

Alcaicerías leaped to the “New World” as commercial spaces

México

Philippines

Alcaicería of México City

Plan, Sebastian Zamorano [1617]

Alcaicería of San Fernando, Manila, Philippines

Design, Tomás Sanz [1756], opened in 1726, demolished in 1850’s

“Remaining in the cities of Toledo and Granada”. Diccionario de Autoridades, 1726

The decline of the silk trade led the disappearance of the alcaicerías in Spain

Real Academia Española (RAE) Dictionary, 2013 [on-line version]

The modern definitions refer to Granada

A chronicle of the Alcaicería of Granada

Chronological line: a space with over 6 centuries with commercial use

Alcaicería

Written documents

Plans of Granada

Evolution: 16th Century - Today

Plans by José Luis Garzón Cardenete (Real sitio y fuerte de La Alcaicería de Granada, 2004)

16th 17th 18th-1843 after 1843 today

Archeological remains. There are no Arab descriptions of Granada’s Alcaicería.

"Transaction Document" 1460 (Repositorio Institucional Univ. de Granada) & shaft and capital, 1333-1354 (Museo de la Alhambra)

The first historiography (1890): Alcaicería of Granada in the time of the Moors

Indalecio Ventura Sabatel, Boletín del Centro Artístico de Granada, V, año 1890. Courtesy of Carlos Sánchez

Detail: the Alcaicería of Granada in the time of the Moors

Indalecio Ventura Sabatel, Boletín del Centro Artístico de Granada, V, año 1890. Detail.

“walking along calle Zacatín, before reaching the square [Bib-rambla], to the right, through a small gate one enters a place called Alcaicería, which is an enclosed quarter between two gates with many narrow alleys; there are shops everywhere run by moriscos [muslims who converted to Christianity] and an infinite amount of goods in multiple shapes and varied nature. It is similar to our haberdasheries or our Rialto [in Venice]. Because, truth be told, there is an endless amount of things there, especially a large quantity of needlework” (Navagiero, Andrea 1526)

There are many descriptions of travelers from the Christian era (after 1492)

Description of Antonio Navagiero, 1526

The Alcaicería of Granada in 1612: enclosed perimeter and interior layout

Plataforma de Vico (1612), detail. Photo courtesy of Blanca Espigares Rooney

The Alcaicería of Granada in 1796

Plano de Dalmau (1796), detail. Photo courtesy of BER

The Alcaicería of Granada in 1787

Colored photocopy by uses of the Plano Tomás López 1897 Archivo Municipal de Granada (original plan in Archivo General de Simancas). Photo courtesy of CSG

Key:

Green: shops

Red: silk shops

Blue: bookshops

Soft pink: The Silk Custom House / House of the administrator

Yellow: shrine

Brown: room for guard dogs

Orange: guard’s quarter

White: shop & house of the Alcaide

Dark pink: private houses

After 1843. A regular layout with ornamentations in a prominent Alhambresque style

The Alhambresque reconstruction. Contreras, Amador, Pugnaire, Romero. Plan. Archivo Municipal de Granada, photo courtesy of CSG

Modular units to be applied to each shop

The Alhambresque reconstruction Archs: Contreras, Amador, Pugnaire, Romero. Elevation Arch. Municipal de Granada, photo courtesy of CSG

An ideal Alcaicería

The Alhambresque recosntruction. Archs: Amador, Pugnaire, Romero. Detail. Archivo Municipal de Granada, photo courtesy of CSG

The operation did not have real commercial success

Photos after the reconstruction. Archive CS

Postcards from the Alcaicería. Left: 1905; right: circa 1970's

A new decision: theme market for handcrafts, 1941

The Alcaicería was revamped and set to be used for a new purpose: tourism

A piece of news: IDEAL 28th, January 1941 (Newspaper Library IDEAL)

1941-1980s / Local arts and crafts tradition has been displaced by new souvenir products

Collection of postcards , after 1941 (Todocoleccion.net)

1980-2012 / The heritage protection

Card “UA U-9-Alcaicería” Plan Especial Centro, July 2002

2007-2012 / Plan Especial Recinto Alcaicería

General plan, Arch: Carlos Sánchez

2007-2012 / Plan Especial Recinto Alcaicería: before and after

Photos: Bottom, before [photos from arch: Carlos Sánchez] / Top, after: [photos from Flickr/Alcaicería]

After the restoration

Before the restoration

The complex is not listed as a heritage asset, should it be included?

Print screen: http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/culturaydeporte/web/areas/bbcc/catalogo [24th May 2013]

The Alcaicería today: a post-touristic shopping scape

Alcaicería

Alcaicería

Alcaicería & main touristic spots

Cathedral

Alhambra

Bib-rambla

Alcaicería

San Nicolás

Alcaicería today: limit and gates, enviroment

La Alcaicería, Granada, Spain. 2013

The mimetic, recently restored, atmosphere is a commercial scenario that mixes reality and fiction

Print screen, Google: Alcaicería

If we were tourists, we could anticipate our visit

Print screen, Flickr: Alcaicería

“the anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non tourist practices”Urry, 1990

Route The Alhambra: Territoy, space and city. Interactive map. Print screen: www.alhambra-patronato.es (click here)

“The idea of post-tourist suggests that tourism might be viewed as a game”Urry, 1990

Youtube: vídeo uploaded by a tourist (2009). Print screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DlOYDF4x0c

“post-tourists delight in the inauthenticity of the normal tourist experience”Urry, 1990

“Look! Look! Arab heritage…This is exactly like a souk un Tunis… just that here I am not afraid… everything must come from there… Look! Look at this apron with flamenco frills”

From the video

Collection of recent photos (after 2008) / virtual itinerary. Print screens, photos from flickr: alcaicería

“(Malls) are conspicuous for cleanliness, and newness”Urry, 1990

Alcaicerías del milenio. Poster of the event in Almería, 2011. Photos from Internet, Almería and Jaen (2011)

“Everything is a copy, where what is fake can often seem more real than the real”Urry, 1990

?

I fantasize that somewhere in the world there is a modern shopping mall called Alcaicería that could serve to complete the chronicle, a space that would be a copy (of Granada's recently restored 19th century Alcaicería) of the copy (of Granada's Medieval Silk Market) of another copy (of the ancient Byzantine imperial market places), "each of which seems more real than the original" (Urry, 1990) but always ready for commerce and shopping to take place.

In the mean time, you can also shop at www.alcaiceria.com

Products, categories: oriental bazaar; embroidery ; fajalauza / painted ceramics ; gifts and souvenirs; taracea / wood with incrustations)

The remains of silk

Photo: JASM (Shop window, calle libreros, Granada, 10/01/2103)

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OBRIGADO / THANKS / GRACIAS,