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On 1 August, The Laboratory of Medieval Archaeology which belongs to the School of Arabic Studies (EEA, Escuela de Estudios Árabes), part of the Spanish High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), initiated the 1st official Campaign of Archaeological Excavations in the Alcázar of Guadalajara. Dr Julio Navarro Palazón (CSIC) was put in charge of this campaign which is carried out according to the agreement signed between the CSIC and the City Council of Guadalajara. This project is meant to last for four years and its main aims are excavation, restoration and valuation of the Alcázar ruins located in the city centre, at Madrid Street, near to the Palacio del Infantado.

The monument dates to the emiral period, when Guadalajara (known as Madînat al-Faray or Wadi-l-hiyara, according to Arabic sources) was part of Marca Media. The foundation of the city was strongly influenced by the unstable nature of this region marked by military conflicts with Christian forces and fights between the Arabic tribes. The period of the strongest instability ended with 'Abd al-Rahmân III’s accession to the throne, which supposed the beginning of the magnificent Caliphate of Cordova and the recovery of the military leadership in fights against the Christian kingdoms from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. According to the chronicles of this period, Guadalajara was then converted into a privileged base for these campaigns. After the Christian conquest of the city which took place in 1085, the Alcázar became the property of the Kingdom of Castile and maintained its former functions of a military centre and the residence of the delegated governor or the members of royal family, such as queen Berenguela, kings Fernando III, Sancho IV and Alfonso XI or infantas Berenguela, daughter of king Alfonso X, and Isabel, first-born daughter of king Sancho IV, both of them Ladies of Guadalajara. During the reign of the Trastámara dynasty, the Alcázar was still in use as it was precisely there, where the Cortes del Reino (Royal Assembly) was held in 1390 and 1408. In 1461 Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, governor of the Alcázar, ordered the construction of new main residence, the Palacio del Infantado, financed with the Alcázar’s funds. The existence of the new palace must have been the beginning of the decadency of the medieval Alcázar, used from then on as a warehouse and a stock for various construction projects of the Mendoza family. The building of the Alcázar, abandoned and dilapidated, was finally destroyed in 1778 in order to create new facilities for housing the new installations of the Real Fábrica de Paños (Royal Textile Factory) situated until then in the nearby Palacio de Montesclaros. The external walls of the Alcázar were saved from demolition and, after some modifications, housed a new building laid out around the courtyard. During the Spanish War of Independence the building recovered its military application. In 1833 it was converted into the Academia Superior de Ingenieros (Higher Academy of Engineering) and remodelled in 1860. Afterwards, the Alcázar housed the quarters of St. Isabel and St. Charles, and the Colegio de Huérfanos de la Guerra (School for Orphaned by the War). In 1936 it suffered from bombs and fire which have revealed the original medieval walls of the fortress, conditions in which it have remained until today.

The global plan of action for preservation of the ruins of the Alcázar of Guadalajara was based on a series of preliminary cleaning works (before the beginning of the excavations) necessary for preparation of the documentation and study of the emerging architectural structures. These works were carried out between the November 2004 and April 2005 and consisted in removing the soil heaped by an archaeological company during the soundings and in clearing weeds that had grown spontaneously inside the building. In addition, a detailed photogrammetrical survey was carried out in order to assure an appropriate planimetry of the Alcázar’s actual state, so the projects of restoration and consolidation could be worked out and a first archaeological approach to the history and characteristics of the building could be done.

These interventions made possible the distinction of four main construction phases: the Islamic fortress (9th – 11th centuries); mudéjar style rooted great late medieval palace (14th century); Real Fábrica de Paños (Royal Textile Factory; 18th century) and military quarters (19th century).

The most relevant result of the preliminary clearing works was the identification of the great mudéjar palace (erected probably by Alfonso XI) and elaboration of a first outline of a hypothetic layout which contains a rectangular building. The palace is distributed around a main South-North axis which connects certain public zones (such as the great bent entrance gate situated in the southern wall and the cross-platform courtyard) and reaches the northern wall’s central tower, where the throne hall is housed. The great cross-platform courtyard was surrounded by a peripteral colonnade with hexagonal pillars among the longer sides. The central part of the courtyard was occupied by a great rectangular pond oriented according to the above mentioned South-North axis. The area between the load-bearing walls situated outside the colonnade, on the eastern an western side of the palace, was reserved for private rooms (separated from the central public zone and located peripherally) and for several rooms opened to the courtyard, which were part of the still poorly known official area.
 
The throne hall is unquestionably the most relevant architectonical element of the building. It is a qubba with square ground plan (similar to the famous Palacio de los Comares (Comares Palace) of the Alhambra) and occupies the whole area of the great northern tower. In this case, like in other constructions created according to the architectural tradition of Al-Andalus, the throne hall is preceded by an oblong room opened to the colonnade. As the described scheme is the same like the one observed in Comares Palace and the chronology of both palaces is similar, the importance of the study of the Alcázar of Guadalajara is even higher, because once we will get to know its complete plan, we will have more information about the extremely interesting phenomenon of the exportation of the Nasrid architectural models and their implementation in Christian territories. The fact that the Guadalajara palace was erected probably some years before the Comares Palace, makes even more interesting this comparative study, as for the first time it makes possible to analyse how the Al-Andalus models were implemented in Castilian territories and later on were returning to their origins and wielding influence on Nasrid architecture.

This first Campaign of Excavations will last four months and will include field works, specific laboratory works (cleaning, classification, inventory and restoration of the discovered movable property), drawing and photographing the most relevant remains. Extensive excavations (200m2) will be carried out in the southern part of the Alcázar, near the tower belonging to the original entrance gate. Some of the existing soundings will also be re-examined in order to proceed with small additional works designed to clear up a few doubts regarding the general organization of the building.
 
In parallel with the above mentioned excavations, the CSIC initiated also a project of conditioning of the ruins with Dr Antonio Almagro (CSIC) in charge. This project will mainly consist in creating a centre for provisional interpretation and an internal tourist circuit in order to assure the possibility of visiting the monument without disturbing the archaeological works and guarantee the appropriate security measures. In this way, anyone interested in the works evolution will have the opportunity of following the archaeological excavations and consolidation of the remains, what would convert these works in a local tourist attraction. At the moment of concluding the project, Guadalajara would recover a key monument to the study of its history, situated in the very city centre. It would also suppose a great step forward in understanding the medieval art and architecture.

Translation by Monika A. Jakacka

The Alcázar before the cleaning works	After clearing of weeds and debris	SE corner
Northern area between load-bearing walls	Mudéjar phase