Castillo-palacio de La Calahorra, Granada: influencia de los factores climáticos y arquitectónicos en el deterioro diferencial de sus fábricas pétreas

J J Guardia,F J J Suárez,M J Varas

doi:10.3989/mc.2013.04112

Abstract

The castle-palace of La Calahorra is a historical building (6th century ) with a dual-function. The exterior is a castle-fortress of late-medieval style, built with rubbles and rough ashlars of a crystalline limestone of great hardness and strength. The interior is a Renaissance palace, made of micritic limestone and dolomitic sandstone ashlars, both stone materials are porous, soft and low strength. The entire building has an orangey colored due to an iron patina that stains its stone masonries as a result of wind action. There is a differential deterioration among its external and internal, depending on the type of stone used factories, the rainwater and wind action and the building defects detected. While the exterior stone is in good state of conservation, the interior stones shows some important deterioration processes , mainly the micritic limestone present in the ornamental and decorative areas of the central courtyard.

Highlights

The castle-palace studied in the present research lays in the town called La Calahorra, situated 73 km east from Granada and 17 km southeast from the town of Guadix, using the A-92 highway
It is placed in the south edge of the Guadix-Baza depression and at the feet of the north hillside of Sierra Nevada (Figure 1)
The castle-palace was constructed by Don Rodrigo de Mendoza between 1509 and 1512 situating the construction on the top of a hill (1250 m height)

Summary

Introduction

The castle-palace studied in the present research lays in the town called La Calahorra, situated 73 km east from Granada and 17 km southeast from the town of Guadix, using the A-92 highway. It is placed in the south edge of the Guadix-Baza depression and at the feet of the north hillside of Sierra Nevada (Figure 1). The work was carried out first by the Segovian architect Lorenzo Vázquez, but not coming to an agreement with Don Rodrigo it was the Genovese Michale Carlone who eventually took up the responsibility of doing the work This architect himself imported some construction materials, techniques and even brought some artists from Italy [1,2,3]

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