THE ALHAMBRA: CARLOS V PALACE, Granada

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The Carlos V Palace was one of the first buildings we entered at the Alhambra. The most striking feature of the palace is the two level circular patio. Considered by many to be the finest example of the Renaissance Style architecture in Spain it is fascinating to walk around and take in the detail. The doric columns and the classic design features made me feel as if I had been immediately transported to another time hundreds of years ago. The patio is definitely worth spending a few minutes at walking around to enjoy its beauty.

The palace was the desire of Charles V who upon arriving in 1492 decided he wanted his own palace befitting of his stature in life in the grounds of the Alhambra. Construction of the palace did not begin until 1527 and was under the supervision of Pedro Machuca an architect who convinced the King that a Renassiance style palace would best represent his needs.

It was difficult to get outside to get a full view of the palace. Consequently I used the Wiki photo to emphasize the scale of the building.

The beauty of Alhambra is so impressive that christian rulers had no doubt to preserve (and use it). Emperor Charles V left the most important signs of it, adding a Renaissance palace, less than one century after the conquest, nowadays one of the biggest buildings of the complex.

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Casa Real Nueva - New Royal House / Palace.

The most striking thing about this palace, for me personally, was how it is so utterly different from the rest of the Alhambra. There is nothing sensuous or alluring about this place. It is strong, masculine, rigid and triumphant. It reeks of military.

Today is houses the Museum of the Alhambra and The Museum of Music and Dance. Apparently concerts are held here too.

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This was an ambitious plan of the occupying King, though he didn't quite have this structure completed.

It looks nice & imposing, particularly as you walk in and see the columns arcing around in front of you.

The views from above are also quite grand, again highlighting the circular form.

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Next to the Charles V's Palace there is a small photo shop "Galeria Photografica Arabe" where you can have your photo taken dressed up in Arabe clothes. On our marathon walk through the palace we got a 10 minutes' break (to pee) close to this shop, which we had seen while passing by. We really wanted our photo taken so the 4 of us asked the travel-guide not to leave us behind and ran up to this shop, were dressed in Arabic clothes, I had 3 photos taken, my friends were dressed up while I had my photo taken, and another friend was dressed up while they had their photo taken and in 10 minutes we managed to leave there with fantastic photos and were all very satisfied and ran to catch our group. Other people in the group were frustrated that they had not noticed/been notified of this photo-shop as they wanted a photo like ours.

One photo cost 11 euros and if you wanted more (they take 3-4 photos of you in different poses) then the cost of the second photo was I think 4 euros. I bought 3 different photos.

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Our next stop after leaving the Generalife gardens was at The Charles V's Palace. It was a bit of a walk, but then while visiting the Alhambra you are expected to walk quite a bit. The Emperor Charles V´s wanted a more comfortable building for winter than his Arab palace and ordered the construction of a palace connected to the Alhambra. The construction work started in the 16th century. The edifice is quadrangular with an open circular patio, built in the Renaissance style and is believed to be the most beautiful Renaissance building outside Italy.

The Alhambra museum is situated on the ground floor of The Charles V's Palace.

When the spanish kings finally conquered Granada in 1492, they respected the moorish castles of the Alhambra, but added some buildings of their own to leave their mark there. One of the best examples is the Charles V Palace, a magnificent renacentist building wirth a superb round inner patio.
You can visit it as part of the Alhambra visit.

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Inside the Charles V Palace are several museums which include the National Museum of Spanish-Moorish Art which displays the 7 jars of the Alhambra and the Museum of Arts which houses a very impressive display of Spanish-Islamic Art.

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It wasn’t until 1957 that Charles V Palace was finally completed. Finance as well as revolts during all these years were the main reason for such a long time in completion and during this time, portions of the existing construction actually collapsed through the palace’s lack of use. While the palace is square on the outside it has a circular centre courtyard with a two level colonnade supported by 32 columns.

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The Palace of Charles V (or Carlos V) is just inside the entrance of the Alhambra. The construction was ordered by Charles V who was the Holy Roman Emperor at the time. He wanted to create a residence for himself close to the other palaces within the Alhambra. The build started in 1527 with only part of the design complete.