Читать книгу Art of Islam - Gaston Migeon - Страница 19

The Great Mosque of Seville was constructed between 1171 and 1172. Its extant minaret is the famous Giralda, erected by Yacoub El Mansour, who expanded the mosque from 1195 to 1197 while constructing numerous monuments in Morocco and in Andalusia. The entire Arab section (the crown dates from the Renaissance) is made of bricks, and the decoration, initially very simple, becomes more sophisticated as you it ascends. On the second floor from the top, which is occupied by a mesh of intersecting arcades in the other minarets, there are three long, vertical bands. The middle one has four-level ajouré [open-work] windows, while the other two are covered with strapwork broken by just two series of blind arcades.