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Gate of Bibarrambla Granada: the rebuilt Arco de las Orejas with twin entrance arches among the pines of the Alhambra forest, warm afternoon light on rammed-earth walls

Gate of Bibarrambla: Why Granada Tore It Down, Then Rebuilt It

The Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada was demolished in 1884 despite its 1881 listing, then rebuilt from 1933 in the Alhambra forest. Here is what is original.

Portrait of James Walker
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Seven years resident in Granada. Specialist in Nasrid architecture, Al-Andalus history, and Andalusian walking routes.

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Modern Granada1808–today
The gate you can walk up to in the Alhambra forest is a reconstruction, not the Nasrid original: Granada's council pulled the Bibarrambla gate down in 1884, three years after it had been declared a National Monument.[1] The Alhambra's conservation architect, Leopoldo Torres Balbás, decided in 1933 to put it back together on a different site from the one where it had stood, at the meeting of calle Arco de las Orejas and calle Salamanca.[2][3] The rebuilt gate stands among the trees of the Alhambra forest, outside the walled enclosure and beside the Puerta de las Granadas and the Charles V fountain;[38] the last section tells you how to find it. Go for a reconstruction with a good story, not for a ruin in its original place.
Modern Granada1808–today
Year it was demolished
1884
Three years after its 1881 National Monument listing[1]
Council versus Commission
11 years
The 1873 to 1884 struggle over pulling it down[18]
2020 restoration budget
€95,510
Announced with a four-month schedule[43]

In this article

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A gate on the sandy plain: what Bab al-Ramla was

Bab al-Ramla, the gateway to the sandy area, was one of the main entrances to medieval Granada.[4] Its origin lies in the Zirid period, when Granada's wall was closed between the Elvira gate and the river Darro, and the story starts with the Zirid city rather than with the Nasrids.[5]
What the 19th-century travellers drew was mostly a Nasrid face on an older body. In the first half of the 14th century a monumental arch was added at the front as a façade, similar to the one that still stands at the Puerta de Elvira.[6] The plan was close to that of the Puerta de la Justicia, with one difference: the passage ran straight, with no bend.[7]
The horseshoe arch of the Puerta de la Justicia, Alhambra's south gateway built in 1348, with the Hand of Fatima carved at the keystone

Explore nearby · Monument

Puerta de la Justicia

Alhambra's main entrance, built by Yusuf I in 1348. A Hand of Fatima on the outer keystone and a Key on the inner encode the Five Pillars and royal power.

The fabric was mainly rammed earth (tapial), with some structural and formal elements in stone,[8] and the gate opened onto Plaza Bibarrambla, the nerve centre of Nasrid Granada that spread across the plain.[9] A working city gate, in other words, with an earthen body and a stone dress.

Why Granada called it the Arch of the Ears

Two explanations compete for the name, and both involve mutilation. The Alhambra's heritage trust says that at the beginning of the 16th century the gate housed a flour weight and the mutilated ears of fraudsters were displayed there.[10] One account links the gate's other names, Puerta de las Orejas and Puerta de las Manos, to a punishment applied to millers who cheated on the weight or adulterated flour.[11]
An older reading, attributed to Manuel Gómez-Moreno, derives the name from the old custom of displaying the mutilated limbs of criminals at city entrances.[12] The flour-weight story is more specific and tied to the 16th century, while the limbs story is vaguer but has the longer pedigree. Granada kept both in circulation.
After the conquest the gate became an emblematic place, with a chapel built inside it in 1507, and in the Baroque period it was an obligatory stop for the Corpus Christi procession.[13][14] By the 19th century Romantic travellers were drawing and painting it more than most monuments,[15] and David Roberts's view of it is one of the two most successful images of his Granada visit.[16] Those pictures are now the best record of how the gate sat in its square.

Eleven years to demolish a listed gate

The town council first raised the need to demolish the gate in 1873,[17] and the Provincial Commission of Monuments held it off in an eleven-year struggle that ended with the demolition in 1884.[18] By then the plaza had been realigned around 1857-58, leaving the gate screened by new buildings opposite,[19] and the council's reasons shifted with each government.
Interior of the Sala de los Abencerrajes Alhambra Granada, a key site in Abencerrajes Granada history, looking up at the octagonal muqarnas honeycomb stalactite ceiling rising above the twelve-sided central marble fountain, shafts of light filtering through high windows, warm stone walls with geometric tile dadoes below carved stucco friezes

Deep dive · Article

Abencerrajes of Granada: the noble clan behind the legend

Abencerrajes of Granada: the noble clan who shaped Nasrid court politics for a century and became legend through a massacre story set in the Alhambra.

The motives on record overlap:

  • In 1873, under the cantonal government, the council decided to demolish it to give work to the city's many unemployed.[20]
  • A prominent individual was interested in its demolition in order to revalue his property.[21]
  • By 1884 its continuing decay, added to a cholera epidemic, persuaded the council to pull it down.[22]
Politics did not change the outcome. Republican municipal governments, revolutionaries of the independent canton and monarchists of the Restoration all worked towards its disappearance,[23] after the Bibalmazán, Fish, Sun and Iron gates of the medieval wall had fallen first.[24]

11 years

The struggle between the town council and the Provincial Commission of Monuments, 1873 to 1884.[18]
Listing did not save it either. A royal order of 10 October 1881 had protected the gate as a National Historic-Artistic Monument,[25] yet it was demolished three years later, and the heritage association Oppidum Eleberis says the council marked the occasion with rockets and fireworks.[26] The fireworks detail is a heritage group's account, not an official record, but the Alhambra's trust frames the whole episode as a symbol of the fight for the protection of historical heritage in Spain.[27]

From museum store to the Alhambra forest, 1930 to 1935

Rebuilding the gate was first proposed in 1930, when Manuel Gómez-Moreno's son suggested to Torres Balbás, then director of the Alhambra, that it be rebuilt somewhere in the monumental complex.[28] The Alhambra's own account says it went up in the forest in 1933 at the behest of both Manuel Gómez Moreno Martínez and Torres Balbás,[29] while a monograph by Ángel Rodríguez Aguilera argues that the idea, long credited to Torres Balbás, was Gómez Moreno the Younger's.[30]
Meanwhile the dismantled gate's key pieces were kept in the Archaeological Museum of Granada, until Torres Balbás decided in 1933 to rebuild it.[31] The first project, on the dry upland known as the secano, was rejected as too flat, and the gate went to its present spot instead.[32]
The work began in 1933 and Torres Balbás published the result as La puerta de Bibarrambla de Granada in the Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología in 1935,[33] and sources date the rebuild to 1933, 1935 or both. One regional account splits it into two stages, arches assembled in 1933 and walls built in 1935.[34]
The reconstruction was faithful rather than pure. It tried to be as accurate as possible, but some voussoirs and bricks were faked and new ashlars were cut in Alfacar stone.[35] A footpath meant to link the gate with the Puerta de la Justicia, winding up the slope, was never built, and the gate has sat in a corner of the promenade ever since.[36]

Finding the Arco de las Orejas today

The gate stands in the Alhambra forest, on the left as you pass through the Puerta de las Granadas, along the Paseo de las Alamedas.[37] City tourism lists it among the things outside the walled enclosure of the Alhambra, alongside the Charles V fountain and the statues of Washington Irving and Ángel Ganivet.[38] The Alhambra zone can also be enjoyed without a ticket,[46] and from the forest the Cuesta de Gómerez runs down to Plaza Nueva.[47]
Only the two entrance arches survive in the rebuilt gate,[39] so what you walk through is mostly a 20th-century composition. In 2016, renovation work on calle Arco de las Orejas exposed five metres of one of the gate's towers,[40] part of remains previously thought lost, along with their connection to the city wall.[41]

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The restoration ran from June to October 2020,[42] with a budget announced at €95,510 and a four-month schedule to stop deterioration.[43] The result looks, in one local newspaper's verdict, perhaps too new, with an aftertaste of Portland cement,[44] and the gate was not given a very solid foundation when it was rebuilt almost a century ago.[45]

What to do with that on the ground:

  • Look at the two entrance arches first; they are what survives of the demolished gate.[39]
  • Compare the straight passage with the bend of the Puerta de la Justicia.[7]
  • Pair it with the Puerta de las Granadas, a Renaissance gate that replaced an Islamic one, whose remains can be seen at its right-hand side.[48]
  • Stop at the Charles V pillar, where the wall behind carries four carved medallions with mythological figures.[49]
  • To stand where the gate really was, go down to the junction of calle Arco de las Orejas and calle Salamanca, above calle Monterería.[3]

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada now?
It stands in the Alhambra forest, on the left as you pass through the Puerta de las Granadas, along the Paseo de las Alamedas.[37] It is a reconstruction and not on its medieval site.[3]

Why is the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada called the Arch of the Ears?
Two explanations circulate. One is that in the early 16th century the gate housed a flour weight and the mutilated ears of fraudsters were displayed there;[10] the other is the old custom of displaying criminals' mutilated limbs at city entrances.[12]

When was the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada demolished?
In 1884, three years after it was declared a National Monument, and after the town council first raised the need to demolish it in 1873.[1][17]

Is the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada the original gate?
Only in part. Just the two entrance arches survive in the rebuilt gate,[39] and some voussoirs and bricks were faked and new ashlars cut in Alfacar stone.[35]

Who rebuilt the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada?
Torres Balbás decided in 1933 to rebuild it,[31] though the Alhambra's account credits both him and Manuel Gómez Moreno Martínez,[29] and one monograph gives the idea to Gómez Moreno the Younger.[30]

What does Bab al-Ramla, the original name of the Gate of Bibarrambla, mean?
Roughly, the gateway to the sandy area. It was one of the main entrances to medieval Granada.[4]

Where was the Gate of Bibarrambla in Granada originally?
At the confluence of calle Arco de las Orejas with calle Salamanca, above calle Monterería.[3]

Why did Granada demolish the Gate of Bibarrambla?
The motives on record overlap: work for the unemployed in 1873,[20] a prominent individual's property interests,[21] and by 1884 decay plus a cholera epidemic.[22]

Sources

49 references Show
  1. Patronato de la Alhambra — Exposicion virtual la puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “The Bibarrambla Gate was declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1881, but incisive pressure from the local authorities managed to knock it down in 1884.”

  2. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Desarmada la puerta pieza a pieza fue guardada en el Museo Arqueológico de Granada, hasta que en 1933 el arquitecto conservador de la Alhambra, Leopoldo Torres Balbás decide reconstruirla”

  3. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “Until its disappearance, it was located at the confluence of the current Arco de las Orejas streets with Salamanca street, above Monterería street.”

  4. Patronato de la Alhambra — Exposicion virtual la puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “The Bab al Rambla (the gateway to the sandy area) was one of the main access gates to the city of Granada in the Middle Ages”

  5. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “El origen de su construcción data de época zirí, cuando se cerró la cerca de Granada entre la Puerta de Elvira y el río Darro.”

  6. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “In the first half of the 14th century a monumental arch was built at the front as a façade, similar to the one that still exists today at the Gate of Elvira.”

  7. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “This model is very similar to that of the Puerta de la Justicia but differs from the one in that the passage is straight and there is no bend.”

  8. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Su fábrica principalmente era de tapial, con ciertos elementos formales y estructurales realizados en piedra,”

  9. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Esta puerta daba acceso a la plaza del mismo nombre centro neurálgico de la Granada nazarí que se extendía sobre el llano.”

  10. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “because at the beginning of the 16th century it was home to a flour weight and the mutilated ears of fraudsters were displayed here.”

  11. monumentalnet.org (opens in a new tab)

    “castigo aplicado a molineros que defraudaban en el peso o adulteraban la harina.”

  12. elindependientedegranada.es — Obras dejan descubierto restos historica puerta bib rambla muralla medina medieval (opens in a new tab)

    “nombre que según Gómez Moreno debía provenir de la antigua costumbre de poner en las entradas de las ciudades los mutilados miembros de los criminales.”

  13. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “it became an emblematic place in the city due to the chapel that was built inside it in 1507”

  14. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “It was an obligatory stop for the Corpus Christi procession in the Baroque period”

  15. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “Fue de los monumentos más dibujados y pintados por los viajeros románticos.”

  16. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “The painter David Roberts visited Granada in the second quarter of the 19th century and of all the drawings and prints he made, there are two that have been more successful”

  17. Patronato de la Alhambra — Exposicion virtual la puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “In 1873 the town council first raised the need for its demolition.”

  18. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “Its destruction was initially checked by the Provincial Commission of Monuments and there was an eleven-year struggle between the two institutions, until 1884.”

  19. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “A mediados del siglo XIX (1857-8) se procedió a realinear esta zona y el Arco de las Orejas quedó tapado por las construcciones de enfrente.”

  20. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “En 1873, coincidiendo con el cantón regionalista que gobernó la comarca, el Ayuntamiento decidió demolerlo para dar empleo a los muchos parados de la ciudad.”

  21. legadoandalusi.es (opens in a new tab)

    “besides, there was a prominent individual interested in its demolition to revalue his property.”

  22. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “Pero el deterioro que continuaba sufriendo, añadido a la epidemia de cólera, aconsejaron al Ayuntamiento derribarlo.”

  23. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “Without exception, Republican municipal governments, revolutionaries of the independent canton and monarchists of the restoration all worked towards its disappearance”

  24. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “First the Bibalmazán gate fell, then the Fish gate, the Sun gate and the Iron gate”

  25. elindependientedegranada.es — Obras dejan descubierto restos historica puerta bib rambla muralla medina medieval (opens in a new tab)

    “como Monumento Nacional Histórico Artístico por R. Orden el 10-10-1881 (Gaceta de Madrid 13-10-1881)”

  26. elindependientedegranada.es — Oppidum eleberis denuncia que cultura pretende ocultar emparedar con pladur restos torreon (opens in a new tab)

    “celebrando tan infausto acontecimiento el Ayuntamiento con cohetes y fuegos artificiales”

  27. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “The Arco de las Orejas is much more than a nostalgic reference since its demolition between 1873 and 1884 became a symbol of the fight for the protection of Historical Heritage in Spain.”

  28. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “Hasta que en 1930, Manuel Gómez-Moreno (hijo) propuso al director de la Alhambra, Leopoldo Torres Balbás, su reconstrucción en algún lugar del conjunto monumental.”

  29. Patronato de la Alhambra — Exposicion virtual la puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Once the most important remains had been recovered, it was rebuilt in the Alhambra forest in 1933, at the behest of Manuel Gómez Moreno Martínez and Leopoldo Torres Balbás.”

  30. elindependientedegranada.es — Alhambra restaurara puerta bib rambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Hasta ahora se atribuía al arquitecto conservador Leopoldo Torres Balbás (1888-1960) esta iniciativa, pero la idea fue de Manuel Gómez Moreno el Joven”

  31. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “Desarmada la puerta pieza a pieza fue guardada en el Museo Arqueológico de Granada, hasta que en 1933 el arquitecto conservador de la Alhambra, Leopoldo Torres Balbás decide reconstruirla”

  32. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “El primer proyecto para reconstruirlo se hizo en el secano, pero fue desestimado por ser lugar demasiado llano”

  33. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “TORRES BALBÁS, L., “La puerta de Bibarrambla de Granada”, Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología, nº33, 1935.”

  34. patrimonizate.es (opens in a new tab)

    “El proyecto se desarrolla en dos etapas: en 1933 se montaron los arcos; y en 1935 se construyen los muros.”

  35. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “La reconstrucción trató de hacerse lo más fiel posible, pero también se falsearon dovelas y ladrillos, así como sillares nuevos en piedra de Alfacar.”

  36. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “Se pensó iniciar aquí una senda peatonal que uniese el Arco de las Orejas con la Puerta de la Justicia, serpenteando por la ladera. Pero nunca se hizo la senda.”

  37. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de bibarrambla (opens in a new tab)

    “según se cruza la puerta de las Granadas en el lado izquierdo, inserta en el bosque.”

  38. turismo.granada.org (opens in a new tab)

    “En el bosque de la Alhambra se encuentran la puerta de las Granadas, el pilar de Carlos V, la puerta de Bibrrambla y las estatuas de Washington Irving y Ángel Ganivet.”

  39. elindependientedegranada.es — Arco orejas rehabilitacion (opens in a new tab)

    “Actualmente perviven sólo los dos arcos de ingreso a la Puerta de Bib-Rambla.”

  40. elindependientedegranada.es — Oppidum eleberis denuncia que cultura pretende ocultar emparedar con pladur restos torreon (opens in a new tab)

    “El pasado noviembre de 2016 y en unas obras de rehabilitación que se estaban llevando a cabo en un edificio de la calle Arco de las Orejas, al picar las paredes aparecieron cinco metros del poderoso torreón”

  41. Patronato de la Alhambra — La puerta de bibarrambla2 (opens in a new tab)

    “In 2016 important archaeological remains resurfaced belonging to one of the gate towers, which were previously thought to be lost, and its connection with the city wall”

  42. patrimonizate.es (opens in a new tab)

    “Aunque en la práctica la obra no se ha llevado a cabo hasta el verano de 2020,iniciando los trabajos en junio para terminar en el mes de octubre.”

  43. elindependientedegranada.es — Arco orejas rehabilitacion (opens in a new tab)

    “esta intervención, que tiene un presupuesto de 95.510 euros y un plazo de ejecución de cuatro meses”

  44. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “La Puerta de Bib-Rambla luce como nueva en el bosque de la Alhambra. Quizás demasiado nueva y con regusto a cemento porland.”

  45. elindependientedegranada.es — Puerta bib rambla luce como nueva bosque alhambra (opens in a new tab)

    “cuando fue reconstruida hace casi un siglo no se le construyó una cimentación demasiado sólida”

  46. turismo.granada.org (opens in a new tab)

    “La zona de la Alhambra también se puede disfrutar sin entrada.”

  47. turismo.granada.org (opens in a new tab)

    “Cuesta de Gómerez que baja a Plaza Nueva”

  48. Patronato de la Alhambra — Puerta de las granadas (opens in a new tab)

    “Esta puerta renacentista sustituyó a otra islámica, cuyos restos pueden verse a su costado derecho.”

  49. Patronato de la Alhambra — Pilar de carlos v (opens in a new tab)

    “presenta cuatro medallones tallados con personajes mitológicos”