ABSTRACT
In this sector there is evidence recorded of seven interventions of consolidation and restoration. With the exception of the last one, they were all directed by Francisco Prieto-Moreno Pardo, who was the conservation architect of the 7th area. The three projects of the 1950s were based on urgent tasks of underpinning of foundations and consolidation of wall faces, by means of concreted rubblework and ordinary rubblework respectively. In 1962 there was an additional repair job of the wall faces with a minor loss of mass, by means of solid masonry brickwork rough rendered with lime mortar and clayey earth, and an effort to find a similar tone to that of the well-preserved rammed earth wall or tapias. However, in 1963 the decision was taken to leave the repairs with solid masonry brickwork exposed, although in areas with superficial crust decomposition they continued to apply the same aforementioned rendering. This new criterion, justified by the convenience of distinguishing the new (brickwork) from the original (tapias)
1 BACKGROUND
1.1 Historical introduction
The hill situated on the right-hand bank of the River Darro was a settlement of the Iberian-Roman Iliberri. The limits must have coincided with those of the first Madina Garnata Andalusí on the northern and western sides, where there are steep escarpments. The fact that the capital of the new Taifa kingdom of the Ziri dynasty was established in Granada at the beginning of the 11th century led to the strengthening of the old walls. A few decades afterwards the city expanded towards the plain and the walled precincts were considerably enlarged; the first precincts became the centre of power under the name of Alcazaba Antigua (Ancient Citadel). At a later date the fortification on the northern side was reinforced, in the area just close to the Cuesta de Alhacaba, with the construction of another exterior wall parallel to the existing one, with gates at both ends (Fig. 1). This must have been built in the period of the Almoravids (10901157) (Torres 1952, Marcos 2010), or maybe in the Almohad period (1157-1232) according to other authors (Márquez & Gurriarán 2008). The fact that Granada was chosen as capital of the Nasrid dynasty in 1237 led to the construction of a new palatine city on the Alhambra hill, and therefore
continued to be applied in the 1968 project. There may also have been influence in the change of criterion, although this is not indicated in the written records, due to the poor adherence of the lime mortar used on the masonry brickwork grouted with mortar from Portland cement.
