Abstract

MORALES, Daniel Jesús Quesada. The cistern of the Count of Tendilla: a late 15th-century hydraulic engineering work in the Alhambra of Granada. Medievalista [online]. 2024, n.35, pp.297-310.  Epub Dec 31, 2023. ISSN 1646-740X.  https://doi.org/10.4000/medievalista.7771.

The construction of the cistern of the Count of Tendilla, as it is known, was one of the first projects undertaken in the Alhambra of Granada as part of the process related to its habitability. From 1492 to 1495, constructions were carried out in the Alhambra to enable the Christian population to withstand a long siege. The adaptation works were developed in two lines, on one hand, the installation of artillery throughout the walls, towers and gates, and on the other, the adoption of measures against a hypothetical siege, highlighting the refortification of the Alcazaba and the construction of the aforementioned cistern.

In the fortress complex, the aim was to create a genuine city with works of high symbolic content, behind which key figures such as Íñigo López de Mendoza, the Count of Tendilla, were involved. This nobleman became one of the ideologists of the significant change that the Nasrid palatine area underwent in relation to the role it played in the framework of the new monarchy.

Keywords : water; Alhambra-Granada; cistern; Count-Tendilla; 15th century.

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