Patio del Cuarto Dorado

Courtyard in Granada

Cuarto Dorado, Palacio Del Mexuar, Alhambra — © 2024 Andrew Ashton

The Facade Of Comares At The Patio Del Cuarto Dorado Courtyard At The Alhambra Palace — © 2024 Andrew Ashton

Patio Cuarto Dorado, Palacio Del Mexuar, Alhambra 1 — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Øyvind Holmstad

Patio Cuarto Dorado, Palacio Del Mexuar, Alhambra 2 — CC BY-SA 2.0 / Jean-Pierre Dalbéra

Fountain In The Patio Cuarto Dorado, Palacio Del Mexuar, Alhambra — CC BY-SA 3.0 / Luis Alfonso Escudero

The Patio del Cuarto Dorado or Courtyard of the Golden Room is a small patio located in the Palacio del Mexuar. One of the palaces that make up the Palacio Nazaríes in the Alhambra Complex, in Granada, Spain. Official hearings were held in this courtyard. This is where the king received his subjects in audience in the second half of the 14th century.

This small patio is located between the Palacio del Mexuar and the and serves as a union between both palaces. During the Christian period, wooden galleries, connected the chambers of the upper galleries, which were preserved until the 19th century.

What can you see in the Patio del Cuarto Dorado?

The north of the courtyard, is a three-arched portico, which leads to the Cuarto Dorado or the Golden Room. To the west of the portico is the entrance from the Mexuar. This is a small door with a horseshoe arch which only allows the passage of one person at a time. This was a defensive to help control access the the courtyard. People would be lead by guards through the portico gallery into the waiting room – now called the Golden Room. The guard would then stand in front of the Portico.

The fountain that occupies the center of the courtyard today is an exact copy from 1943 of the original fountain, which is now to be found in the Jardín de Daraxa. The elegant fountain in the center, is placed at ground level so that its sound does not disturb conversations.

To the south of the Patio del Cuarto Dorado lies in the imposing Comares façade. This was erected by Muhamed V to commemorate the taking of Algeciras in 1369. The imposing Comares façade was the entrance to the Sultan’s private residential area. On this façade above three marble steps, we find two identical lintel doors, tiled on ceramic plinth, and plaster decoration. The door on the right served as access to the residential area for the Sultan’s family and the one on the left to the Sultan’s private rooms.

Above there are two twin windows with banked scalloped arches and a smaller one in the middle, surrounded by inscriptions from the Koran. The upper floor were the private rooms of the women, and the windows were covered with the lattices for their privacy, and was where they could unobtrusively watch the entire court ceremony.

The entire wall is decorated with beautiful ornaments of glazed tiles, stucco and carved wood. There area also numerous inscriptions, which read the motto “Only God is victor.” One of the poems by Ibn Zamrak is tattooed on the frieze made of carved wood, as in other parts of the Nasrid palaces.

The sultan would have sat between the two doors. He would have sat on a jamuga, which was an Hip-joint armchair consisting of four S-shaped supports on two runner-like stands. Above which would be a large wooden canopy, symbolically acting like as a crown for dramatic effect.

The Patio del Cuarto Dorado appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Granada!

Other names of Patio del Cuarto Dorado

The Patio del Cuarto Dorado has the following names: Patio del Cuarto Dorado, Courtyard of the Golden Room, Patio of the Gilded Room, Pation del Mexuar..

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