Aljaferia: Evolution from an old Moslem Palace to a new Aragon Regional Parliament

A feature of Zaragoza, the regional capital of the Aragon Autonomous Community (Region), is what could appropriately be referred to as its center of excellence and the epitome of the Taifa Moslem Architecture. The Aljaferia palace was constructed in the 11th century as the residence of the Moslem rulers of Zaragoza at the height of their power and the influence of Taifa Kingdoms in Spain. On my birthday in 2010, I decided to tour its grounds and walked the steps that the kings, queens and people who occupied this edifice for over a thousand years and the modern legislators and peopleof Aragon had/have walked, played, slept, debated and made great decisions in.

Welcome to Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza

The grandeur of the palace conveys the architectural prowess as well as the intellectual pre-eminence that flourished in the era of liberal and enlightened moslem independent kingdoms in Spain. All these changed hands during the reconquest era when christian kings started recapturing cities and regions from the Moslem rulers. In 1118, Zaragoza was recaptured by King Alfonso I of Aragon, and Aljaferia became the king´s court and residence and from then on became the residence of the Christian Kings. The changes then also resulted in a good mix of what became Mudejar Architectural style.

While the basic structure remained the same, over the centuries, there had been some modifications and a few additions to meet the needs of the use at the time, including when it was briefly used as a military base. In fact a wing of it ultimately became slightly reconfigured to fit in the current Parliamentary chambers of the Aragon legislature.

Walking down the hallway

As ancient as Aljaferia palace is, it is right in the middle of the city with modern apartments sitting right across the street from which residents could look into the grounds of the palace, while a highway passes a few feet away from one side of the building, and residential parking lots sit on the other side. The front entrance had coffeeshops lining the streets across the road, presenting the palace as an oddity sitting in a modern chaotic residential and business city center.

The imposing structure left no one in doubt of its fortified defensive purpose, which was further buttressed by the semi-circular turrets and various watch .towers jutting out from the bulding. The immediate grounds was a huge moat encircling the entire infrastructure.

A model of the edifice

However the interior portions were a contrast to its stoic military outlook. The internal residential quarters boast of the best in luxurious living for any era. It has spacious rooms and halls with the most decorative arches, brick and tile works, as well as swimming pools, fountains, ornamental decorations in every nook and crevice, porticoes, courtyards for artistic and intellectual debating engagements, and down to a basement area that had various tunnels and channels running like a labyrinth of a totally different world from the upper chambers, with a gaping deep well, dug down to the river that flows several meters below the building so that water supply would neither be interrupted nor fetched from outside the grounds of the enclosed edifice.


One of the courtyards


The program literature confirms that äll of the artisitic achievements correspond to the work carried out during the second half of the 11th century under the command of Abu-Ya´far Ab-mad ibn Hud al-Muqtadir, and they serve to highlight the cultural imporatnce and the rich virtuosity of his court. Furthermore, the Aljaferia is thought to be one of the greatests pinnacles of Hispano-Moslem art, and its artistic contributions were later copied at the Reales Alcazares in Seville and of the Alhambra in Granada¨.

Obviously when the Christian kings took over the palace when Zaragoza was reconquired and reconverted to Christianity, the palace was not spared the rechristening stamp. So, during the medieval periods between the 12th and 14th centuries there was a lot of expansion and restructuring of the palace, especially in the upper floors that christianized the look and added chapels, paintings and sculptures reflecting the new power structure.

Front yard

In recognition of the Aljaferia Palace structure and its place in Aragonese life, in 1987 it became the host structure for the Regional Assembly of Aragon, The Aragonese Parliament, which represents over 1,300,000 people living in Aragon´s expanseive region made up of three provinces, Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel.

The Regional Assembly of Aragon is described as a single chamber assembly, made up of delegates elected every four years by universal, free, equal, direct and secret vote. There are currently 67 delegates in the Parlianement broken down to 14 from Teruel, 18 from Huesca and 35 from Zaragoza.

Tour completed, October 2010

It is indeed a privilege being in the halls, rooms, courtyards, basement and grounds of this magnificient structure. Who would have thought that centiuries later, I would be admiring such a wonderful piece of architecture conceived and built over a thoudand years before I was conceived. Remarkably, it looked like it was just completed a year ago.