Inspección y análisis científico de las torres atalaya que defendieron el último reino islámico de la Península Ibérica

Abstract

The Islamic Nasrid kingdom of Granada occupied the mountainous areas of the south-eastern area of the Iberian Peninsula. The Baetic mountain range worked as a natural frontier between the Nasrid kingdom and the Christian kingdom of Castile from 1232 to 1492. An extensive network of watchtowers was built by Nasrid to control this frontier stablishing visual communication between them and the Nasrid centre at the Alhambra citadel. Many of them are still standing, disperse through the provinces of Granada, Malaga, Almeria and the eastern parts of Jaen, Cordoba and Cadiz. Even being this military architecture protected by Spanish Heritage law, many of these medieval towers and their cultural landscapes are in severe risk.

There are studies of individual towers, but any global comparative study has been developed. For this reason, within the framework of the R&D project called ‘Las atalayas que defendieron el reino nazarí de Granada. Análisis y documentación científica (Nazalaya)” (HAR2016-79689-P) financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain, the towers are being studied as individual exemplars as well as components of the same typological group. This generates a complete documentation constituted by a homogenous and exhaustively planimetry which supplements the existing information and enabling comparative analysis. Furthermore complete architectural surveys are being carried out using techniques as photogrammetry. In addition to the analysis of construction systems, the structural safety of these towers is evaluated formulating guidelines for its restoration.