They are at the top of the neighborhood. Realejo and from there they look almost face to face at the Candle Towerthe highest point of the Alhambra. At the time they fulfilled a military function of which now, when you go up to see them, there is plenty of evidence. Because you can go up, that should be the first thing said. And free.
They are the Bermejas Towers and, although they are the portico of the Alhambra, they were built previously, in the 9th century. Since then they have undergone several reconstructions, the last of them in the 20th century. From November 2024 they can be viewed on Saturdays and Sundays for free.
The Torres Bermejas bastion belongs to the constructions ordered by the Catholic Kings in the year 1492 to adapt the conquered fortifications to the new military demands. In modern and contemporary times, the complex was converted into a men’s prison, a women’s prison, a detention center for beggars, an asylum, a reception center and a military prison. In 1962 It was purchased from the Ministry of the Army by the Patronage of the Alhambra and the Generalife.
The Bermejas Towers crown the Realejo neighborhood
However, it has not been used until now. In 2017, the Junta of Andalusia The restoration work began, which cost 1.8 million euros. Among the interventions carried out, the conservation works on the architectural factories stand out with the work on roofs and platforms, which have made it possible to provide them with watertightness. In addition, emergency work was carried out in 2021 to resolve problems of serious structural instability.
They are not beautiful inside, they have nothing to do with the Courtyard of the Lions. As a military strongman, the fundamental thing was to be practical. This sobriety is noticeable, for example, when entering the rooms inside the towers. The pity is that for now you cannot climb to the top. There are some stairs that are a little precarious but only for use by maintenance staff.
But due to lack of good views it will not be. The towers allow you to see the perimeter in 360 degrees all around, it was their thing to monitor every corner. That, in practice, means that you can see the Alhambra in the foreground and to the left the neighborhood of Albaicina sight that is difficult to spot and certainly worthy of admiration.
The view of the Alhambra in the foreground and to the left the Albaicín is almost impossible to see in other places in Granada
But the thing is that in the viewpoints that do not face the Nasrid monument, now conveniently adapted so that visitors like them morethere are also very pleasant surprises. Turning your head from the Torre de la Vela counterclockwise, you can see a good part of the center until you reach the Realejo, which, as has been said, is at the foot and is presented in all its splendor.
In the background, the Vega, now penetrated by dozens of towns in the Metropolitan Area, and in the background a clearer landscape, which remembers what the past could have been like, when, as the elders would say, all that was fields and the guards of the fortress could see to those who approached when they still had at least a day of horseback riding left.
Now that it is one more attraction of the many associated with the Alhambra, its board of trustees intends for it to be one more attraction in its project to recover the hill or Mauror hillparallel to the Sabika hill and separated from it by the captivating Alhambra Forest. In the Mauror there are, among other things, the Rodríguez Acosta Foundation or the Carmen of the Martyrsboth spaces that should be talked about more calmly.
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