Maristan of Granada/ Foundation Stone/ Fountain heads in the shape of lions

The maristan is an institution that has its roots in the Orient and arrived in Andalusia during the twelfth century[1]. These hospitals were generally commissioned by monarchs or important personalities. It is possible that Muhammad V was influenced by similar foundations in Cairo commissioned by Abu Yussef and Abu Inan. This maristan was situated on the right bank of the river Darro. It was rectangular in its layout and was on two levels with four halls. In the interior, there was a patio with a pool at its centre. The first floor was reached by two stairways on the longer sides of the building. The halls were divided into smaller spaces of about six square metres. These rooms were accessed by galleries and interconnected from the interior. The structure is very similar to that of the market, the Corral del Carbon. Many Islamic structures, both in the east and the west, follow the same layout[2] (Madrassa, markets, hospitals, ribat etc…).

The façade is perfectly symmetrical. The central part was taken up by the entrance, above which the foundation stone was situated. The entrance was a horseshoe arch of Macael marble.

The maristan was at first used as a hospital for the mentally ill. After this it was used for diverse purposes. From the sixteenth century it was became the Casa de la Moneda (mint). In 1843 the building was almost entirely demolished. This demolition was completed in 1984 but more recent research has uncovered a part of the southern hall, the foundations of the three others and the pool.

The two lions, which let water into the pool and which Torres Balbas described as “succinct work after the oriental fashion, with no intention of being realistic” have also survived. They have both been transferred to the Alhambra. They are sculpted from dark coloured marble. They were used as fountain-heads and have an interior pipe running from the moth to the base. The lions are both seated According to Jesus Bermudes and Jorge Calancho’s description, they have no ears and their heads and the upper part of their bodies are covered by their manes. According to the same authors “the necks are marked by the two pharynx, the wide jaw includes upper and lower canines, through which the water flows over a long tongue […] The muzzle is also marked by two lobes, on which we can just see the eyelids”. Their study of the two lions includes a long dissertation on the depiction of lions since antiquity. Already during the period of the Hittite Empire they were popular at city entrance gates and at the entrances to wealthy houses[3]. The lion, as a symbol of physical and political power, was often associated with princes. In the Islamic world, Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, is called the “lion of Allah”. It is also a common first name in Turkey, Iran and India. They have also been associated with water for many centuries as we can see from the lion’s head jug from the Lazaro Galdiano Museum. In Islamic art there are numerous examples of lions in the Orient (Marble foundation stone representing the caliph, Khirbat al-Mafjar in the Palestinian Museum in Jerusalem) as well as on the Iberian Peninsula (The Badis basin, The Leyre casket, the Sato Domingo de Silos casket the Palencia casket, the al-Mughira pyxis, cloth from San Millan de la Cogolla…).

Jesus Bermudez and Jorge Calancho also mention an almost perfect copy of the maristan lions on an ivory piece from the twelfth century held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

[2] Rectangular layout with four halls and galleries built on brick pillars. A central patio with a water basin.

[3] “Statues of lions flanked the West gate of the city of Hatusa in Bogazkoy during the great Hittite Empire from the fourteenth to the thirteenth century B.C. They represented the good genies who protected the entrances of cities and houses and were still to be found at the Malatia gate in the ninth and tenth century B.C.”