The phenomenon of flaking of some of the columns of the Courtyard of the Lions is one of the main aspects of this book published by the University of Granada: Estudio constructivo-estructural de la galería y columnata del Patio de los Leones de la Alhambra de Granada (Constructive-structural study of the gallery and colonnade of the Courtyard of the Lions of the Alhambra of Granada), a work by professors María Paz Sáez Pérez and José Rodríguez Gordillo. “According to the authors, the flaking phenomenon origins, without doubt, the main negative effects on the colonnade, not only from an aesthetical point of view, but also from the point of view of the stability and maintenance of its physical features.”
According to Professors María Paz Sáez Pérez and José Rodríguez Gordillo, the observed flaking mainly concentrates in the areas directly exposed to sun radiation and only as an exception appears in no-exposed areas.
The work, which offers an approach to the knowledge of the future and the structural and architectural keys of one of the most emblematic areas of the Alhambra, gets directly inside the technical keys and approaches of those who built con the Courtyard of the Lions, from a field of study which joins the research on materials behaviour (Chemistry, Mineralogy…) and Architecture in its Structural and Technical dimensions, with the aim of restoring and maintaining.
According to the Professor of Architectural Restoration, Javier Gallego Roca, author of the prologue of this book, the columns of the Courtyard of the Lions have mainly suffered from the 17th century, numerous restoration interventions.
Such interventions, —Gallego Roca says—determined by the precarious static conditions of the monument, involved their dismantling and substitution or relocation in situ. After such interventions, which seemed to have solved permanently structural problems, the general situation of the monument appears serious again, due to different reasons, and requires a determined intervention”.
According to Gallego Roca, the book deals with an essential aspect of Architecture restoration: “knowledge to intervene on the 124 fine columns made of white marble from Macael, some free-standing, some of them double or forming groups of three or four in the angles of the architectonic complex of the age of Muhammad V. Knowledge is the premise for any intervention in the architectural heritage, in this case the research work applied to such knowledge has been linked to the features of environmental and structural factors, carried out with thoroughly accurate scientific means and criteria. It is interesting to highlight how the treatment applied to aspects of material degradation and constructive and structural aspects. The research work bears witness to the multiplicity and importance of the contributions of science to solve the problems of the maintenance and restoration of the architectonic heritage”.
Reference:
Prof María Paz Sáez Pérez.
Dpt. of Architectural Constructions. University of Granada.
Phone number: 958 246297 – 243117.
E-mail: mpsaez@.ugr.es
Prof José Rodríguez Gordillo.
Dpt. of Mineralogy and Petrology. University of Granada.
Phone number: 958 243343 – 248535.
E-mail: jrgordillo@goliat.ugr.es
