It was only a five-cloister week, but they were all Dominican cloisters, which I think is a first! Some of them were more interesting than others, but overall, I think it was a very productive week.
It's interesting in that the plantings (seemingly purposefully?) make it look like it's asymmetrical, when it's actually a perfect square. Also, it has a very interesting drainage system. Looking at different cloister drainage systems has been one of the main highlights of my time in Spain so far, believe it or not!
Even though I didn't get to see the other cloisters, while I was looking at them on the map, I realized that one of them was called the Cloister of the Aljibes, which turns out to translate to 'cisterns', which shed light on some things I saw later in the week, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
The cloister at Las Duenas, catty-corner from San Esteban, which belongs to the Dominican nuns, is pentagonal. And irregularly pentagonal, at that. Which, as you may imagine, makes it difficult to draw. (I tend to require at least two right angles in order to draw a polygon accurately without a ruler and/or compass, and...I did not have that.) But the vegetation was incredibly diverse and beautiful, and it smelled really good! (Lots of roses, and lavender, too.) One of the things I've been noticing so far in my research is that the Dominican nuns tend to have a lot more flowers (and plant diversity in general) than the friars do, which feels amusingly appropriate.
My first stop in Cordoba was the Mosque-Cathedral, which I've been wanting to see every since I took LA 222 (Islamic Gardens and Architecture)! It was just as incredible in person as I expected (actually, more so) and I really enjoyed seeing both the interior and the Court of the Oranges, which I think will be a useful point of comparison for cloisters in general, since three sides of it are surrounded by a cloister-esque colonnade. I'm not counting it as a cloister, though!
The actual research reason I was in Cordoba, though, was to visit Santo Domingo Scala Coeli, which is about twenty minutes out of town, in the Cordoba hills. It's a tiny little place, but it has two cloisters, including one that's actually a Cloister of the Aljibes! (Or I guess Cloister of the Aljibe, since there's only one.) It's a cloister which is, essentially, a big catchment that flows into a cistern below the cloister where they can get water during droughts if the spring fails. The same cloister also has several trees and a really fun irrigation system of catchments and ditches. Honestly, it's probably one of my favourite cloisters so far, which is funny because the priest who was very kindly showing me around had assumed that I wouldn't want to see it. I had to specifically ask for time there.
Their other cloister was also interesting--it also acts as a water catchment, but there's quite a bit more vegetation, with an enormous orange tree, and quite a few potted plants. Unfortunately, there were also a couple of pots with standing water, which resulted in me getting fifteen mosquito bites in about as many minutes, which made the next couple of days rather unpleasant.
The last cloister this week was Santa Cruz la Real in Granada. The space is currently being used by the college which is now occupying the cloister buildings (although I think the college is still affilicated with the Dominicans) which apparently means it gets used for events where they set up stages--unique among the cloisters I've seen, for sure! But other than that, it was relatively simply, which was a Godsend for my end-of-week tired brain. (
Speaking of tired brain...I know this post is a bit shorter than usual, but I need to go to bed, so it will have to suffice. See you next week!
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