Mirador (architecture)

{{short description|Architectural feature}}

File:Aa view from the harem of alhambra 2016 (2).jpg in the Alhambra of Granada, Spain, dating to the 14th century]]

A mirador is a Spanish term (from {{Langx|es|mirar|links=no|lit=to look at}}){{Cite book |last= |first= |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780195309911 |editor-last=M. Bloom |editor-first=Jonathan |location= |pages=257 |chapter=Balcony |editor-last2=S. Blair |editor-first2=Sheila}} designating a lookout point or a place designed to offer extensive views of the surrounding area. In an architectural context, the term can refer to a tower, balcony, window, or other feature that offers wide views.{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Cyril M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6n4JLmyooTwC&dq=mirador+architecture+spain&pg=PA355 |title=Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture |publisher=Courier Corporation |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-486-24444-0 |pages=355 |language=en}} The term is often applied to Moorish architecture, especially Nasrid architecture, to refer to an elevated room or platform that projects outwards from the rest of a building and offers 180-degree views through windows on three sides.{{Cite book |last=Arnold |first=Felix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXjXDQAAQBAJ&dq=Islamic+Palace+Architecture+in+the+Western+Mediterranean&pg=PP1 |title=Islamic Palace Architecture in the Western Mediterranean: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780190624552 |location= |pages=}}{{Rp|page=|pages=248-255}} The equivalent term in Arabic is bahw ({{Langx|ar|بهو|links=no}}) or manāẓir/manẓar ({{Langx|ar|منظر/ مناظر|links=no}}).{{Rp|page=248}}{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBhREAAAQBAJ |title=A Companion to Islamic Granada |publisher=Brill |year=2021 |isbn=978-90-04-42581-1 |editor-last=Boloix-Gallardo |editor-first=Bárbara |pages=399 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Ruggles |first=D. Fairchild |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JgQxkcLBzaEC&pg=PP1 |title=Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780271018515 |location= |pages=101}}

In Moorish architecture the mirador is typically situated on the perimeter of a building and is aligned with its central axis.{{Cite book |last=Dickie |first=James |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_1TEAAAQBAJ&dq=mirador+architecture&pg=PA624 |title=The Legacy of Muslim Spain |publisher=Brill |year=2021 |isbn=978-90-04-50259-8 |editor-last=Jayyusi |editor-first=Salma Khadra |pages=624 |language=en |chapter=Space and Volume in Nasrid Architecture}} It is particularly characteristic of Nasrid architecture in al-Andalus (late 13th to 15th centuries), most notably in the palaces of the Alhambra.{{Cite journal |last=Fairchild Ruggles |first=D. |date=1997 |title=The Eye of Sovereignty: Poetry and Vision in the Alhambra's Lindaraja Mirador |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/767237 |journal=Visual Culture of Medieval Iberia |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=180–189|doi=10.2307/767237 |jstor=767237 |s2cid=192839637 |url-access=subscription }}{{Rp|page=249}} Scholar Arnold Felix traces the development of this feature to the combination of two pre-existing features in the architecture of al-Andalus and western North Africa: halls with views over gardens in earlier Moorish architecture, such as the 10th-century example of ar-Rummāniya (a palatial country estate outside Umayyad Cordoba), and rooms projecting from the edge or rear of fortified palaces, such as in the 11th-century Castle of Monteagudo (near Murcia) and Qal'at Bani Hammad (in Algeria).{{Rp|page=|pages=248-249}} The earliest true examples of the Nasrid mirador are found in the Generalife Palace and the Palace of the Convent of San Francisco.{{Rp|page=|pages=248-255}} The pinnacle of mirador design is the ornate Mirador of Lindaraja in the Palace of the Lions in the Alhambra.