Bien: Casa del Chapiz
Comunidad Autónoma: C.A. Andalucía
Provincia: Granada
Municipio: Granada
Categoría: Monumento
Código: (R.I.) - 51 - 0000173 - 00000
Registro: (R.I.) REGISTRO BIC INMUEBLES: Código definitivo
Fecha de Declaración: 03-12-1919
Fecha Boletín Declaración: 08-12-1919
""It consists of the rehabilitation of two Moorish houses ( 16th century ) located in the Albaicín neighborhood of Granada , located on the Cuesta del Chapiz corner with the Sacromonte path . Since 1932 , it has been the headquarters of the School of Arab Studies.
History
The houses were expropriated in 1571 , due to the participation of their respective owners in the Moorish uprising and by virtue of the Charter of Incorporation of Felipe II , for which they became part of the Castilian crown. Later, the king ceded them by decree of 1583 to one of his secretaries, Juan Vázquez de Salazar , who incorporated them into the Salazar Board of Trusteesand he leased them to various people and institutions, including the Royal Company of Factories and Commerce of Granada. The houses were converted into neighborhood houses, where their tenants were installing private businesses and small industries, thus contributing to the deterioration of the buildings, which at the beginning of the 20th century were in a state of authentic ruin. In 1919 , the building was declared an architectural monument, and in 1929 , the property passed into the hands of the State. Subsequently, the architect and restorer Leopoldo Torres Balbás carried out the restoration of the building.
Description
The houses occupy a large plot with an orchard and garden located on the corner formed by the Chapiz slope and the Sacromonte path, which formerly led to Guadix . Although the name of Casa del Chapiz, in the singular, is very frequent, the use of the plural is more precise, since they are two different houses with different origins. The confusion has been caused by the circumstance that they share the corridor located between the two, which has led to the belief that it was a house with two patios. However, both from the study of its architectural elements and from the documentary data of the 16th century that are preserved, the existence of two independent residential units can be demonstrated. Originally these houses must have been part of an Arab palace.
Access was made from the Peso de la Harina square, at the beginning of the Sacromonte path , through a space common to both houses, at the end of which the entrance hall to the main house would be located. It seems that it was built on the remains of a Nasrid palace from the 14th century , of which part of the layout of the floor and some elements are preserved, which were used when it was rebuilt, at the beginning of the 16th century, by the Moorish Lorenzo el Chapiz, whose name has endured in the complex and the street where it is located. In the same period, his brother-in-law Hernán López el Ferí would build the other house, smaller in size and, probably, a new one.
Due to these circumstances, the two houses constitute an example of great value for understanding the process of typological evolution that took place in Nasrid domestic architecture from its mature stage to what could be considered its last phase of survival in the 16th century, the Moorish.
House of Lorenzo el Chapiz
The main house is organized around a large rectangular patio, whose long side coincides with the north-south direction. Although only the north, east and the beginning of the west corridors have survived to this day, the typological scheme of a closed patio was perfectly recognized by Torres Balbás, an architect who between 1929 and 1932 directed the rehabilitation works to install in these houses the newly created School of Arab Studies .
In the center of the patio the original pool of very elongated proportion is preserved. The other reused Nasrid elements are the white marble columns that support the arches of the north porch. Behind the central arch is the portal of the main room of the house, whose beautiful marble scroungers were still preserved at the beginning of the 19th century, and are exhibited in the Alhambra Museum.
Lorenzo el Chapiz decided to adapt the house to the taste and needs of his time, he built the upper floor. This arrangement of volumes was accurately drawn by the Englishman Richard Ford between 1831 and 1833 . In the southern corridor a large window opened towards the Generalife, which is in the National Archaeological Museum (Spain) .
The galleries are built in wood, with railings of turned balusters that denote influences of Renaissance taste. The gallery on the east side was completely redone in the course of the rehabilitation works. The main rooms on the upper floor are covered with large wooden frames made according to the pair and knuckle system.
House of Hernán López el Ferí
This Moorish house is much smaller in size than the previous one. Its hallway has off-center openings to make it difficult to see directly into its rectangular courtyard with a small pool in the center. The functional organization follows the Mudejar tradition , with wooden galleries on the four sides of the patio, which allow easy access to all the rooms on the upper floor.
Under the northern corridor there is a cistern, which was used to store the water that came through the Aynadamar irrigation channel , intended both for human consumption and for irrigation of the orchard.
The galleries have decorative characteristics somewhat different from those of the other house, although they maintain the fusion of Nasrid, Gothic and Renaissance elements typical of Granada's Mudejar. From Nasrid art survive the muqarnas that adorn the right feet that support the ceilings of the gallery. From Gothic art comes the layout of the lobed footings with the chest of a dove underneath, as well as the straight balusters of the railing, and from the Renaissance come the carved vases on the fronts of the footings on the smaller sides, as well as the capitals of the two marble columns."
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