Arch leading to the Sala de dos Hermanas – Hall of the Two Sisters with ornate Stucco decoration
The weekly photo challenge – Ornate, reminded me of our early June visit to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Our first visit to the Nasrid Palaces and the Generalife. We had travelled to see the incredibly beautiful gardens. The intense heat slowed down our progress and forced us to shelter within the palace rooms and appreciate the extraordinary ornate stucco detail, decorating walls, arches and pillars extending to ceilings inside many of the rooms.
The Arch shown here leads to the entrance of the Sala de dos Hermanas – Hall of the Two Sisters, so called because of two large marble flagstones within the floor. The Sultana would have lived here with her family.
Gardening Jules 
Beautiful!
The beauty of the internal architecture and decoration was a lovely surprise. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it Julie.
the Moors certainly created intricate designs, you have caught a wonderful golden light in your photo Julie, we were told some of the patterns are old Arabic writing telling stories of the kings, also that originally these designs were painted in great detail different colours, the hours that must have been spent creating them, personally I’m not sure I would like to see them painted I felt part of the beauty is in the creamy white, happy memories, Frances
I’ve read they were painted Frances, but found that really hard to imagine. I agree with you the creamy white is so beautiful. I hope we get the chance to go back and explore the area further.
One of the beauties of blogging is you can visit all sorts of beautiful places around the world from your armchair. Thank you Julie.
I really like that aspect too Brian! 🙂
What a beautiful arch and such a good photo Julie!
Thanks Clare, I would of liked to have taken more photographs inside the palaces, hopefully we will be able to visit again.
A really fascinating and gorgeous bit of detail. The Nasrid Palaces are on my “Bucket List” so I look forward to someday seeing all this up-close.
I waited a very long to time to visit, and so glad we did, I can understand why folk go more than once as there is so much to see. I hope you get to visit Charlie.
One of my favourite places, I think you win the prize for the best ‘Ornate’ image!
Thanks Christina! 🙂
The details and beauty of the arch are stunning. I imagine it took a long time to make by hand.
Yes, I should think so too, I have been trying to research more on the Stucco panels and the most helpful article was on the UK Victoria and Albert museum website. I’ve added the link in case you’d like to know more too.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-48/nasrid-plasterwork-symbolism,-materials-and-techniques/
Thank you very much for the link.
What intricate detail. It reminds me of a beautifully frosted confection! And yes, that golden light really puts the image over the top. I wonder – if we’d only ever seen these arches painted, perhaps we’d appreciate the details in new ways. Hard to imagine…
I’d like to see something an imagined version, I wondered if they would look less tactile. Not of course that anyone was allowed to touch these ones, but I expect its jolly hard to resist!
Just gorgeous! I might be traveling to Spain next summer and need to add this to my list of things to see. :o)
I follow another blogger Island Threads who gave me some great advice on the Sierra Nevada mountains for a future trip to Southern Spain. There is a great deal to see in this part of the world Tammy. The Alhambra is worth researching before you go, as there are released batches of tickets and different tour options or on your own as we did. I hope you get to go. 🙂
Now that is ornate.
The Alhambra is a beautiful place to visit, in contrast to the plain exterior the interior detail and decoration is very ornate.
Beautifully framed photograph. This is one of my favourite places too, but you have to pick your time to visit I think. Summer is just too busy (and hot)! Anyone visiting then needs to remember to book a time slot in advance too. I would have loved to have seen the palace as it was when it was originally built, it must have been truly glorious.
We visited in June in the tail end of 40 degree heat, far too hot for us! We did book in advance though. Lesson learn’t, next time we visit it will be much earlier or later in the year. I agree with wanting to see the original palace, the plaster work must of looked so different in colour.