The palace commissioned by Charles V in the middle of the Alhambra was designed by Pedro Machuca, an architect who had trained under Michelangelo in Rome and who was steeped in the culture of the Italian High Renaissance and of the artistic circles of Raphael and Giulio Romano. It was conceived in a contemporary Renaissance style or "Roman" style with an innovative design reflecting the architectural ideals of this period. The architecture espoused by Charles V in Spain at this time was also influenced by, among other traditions, the Plateresque style. The construction of a monumental Italian or Roman-influenced palace in the heart of the Nasrid-built Alhambra symbolized Charles V's imperial status and the triumph of Christianity over Islam achieved by his grandparents (Catholic Monarchs).
Construction of the palace began in 1527. After Machuca's death in 1550 it was continued by his son Luis, who finished the facades and built the internal courtyard. Work was halted for 15 years when the 1568 Morisco Rebellion began.
Work was still unfinished when Philip IV visited in 1628 and the project was finally abandoned in 1637, leaving the structure without a roof. As a result, the palace deteriorated in the following centuries, during which it was used as a storage facility for gunpowder and other materials. During the Peninsular War, when French troops occupied the Alhambra between 1810 and 1812, the French soldiers stripped any wooden furnishings they could find inside the palace in order to make fires.
The palace was only completed after 1923, when Leopoldo Torres Balbás initiated its restoration.The roof of the building was finally completed in 1967. A small "Arab museum" was first installed in the building in 1928. In 1942 it became the Archeological Museum of the Alhambra and in 1995 it became the current "Alhambra Museum", housed on the ground floor. In 1958 another museum, the Fine Arts Museum of Granada, was installed on the upper floor.
Palace of Charles V
The palace of Charles V is coloquially refered to as “the circle and square” in reference to its architectural design. The building stonework is square, measuring 63 m. 17,40 length and height in the main facades. The circular courtyard is 30 m. in diameter, it occupies the center of the building and surrounding a wide portico with 32 Doric columns.
The overall construction of the palace is symmetrical on both axis, containing a corner of the square structure, and a segments of the circular courtyard.
The classical orders are in pilaster form except around the central doorways. On the exterior, the lower floor is in the Tuscan order, with the pilasters 'blocked' by continuing the heavy rustication across them, while the upper storey uses the Ionic order, with elaborately pedimented lower windows below round windows.
