The Palace of the Aljafería of Zaragoza

Returning to the sixteen big towers that reinforced the wall, only a few courses of the large alabaster stones of their construction remain. In spite of the similarity in plan and layout to Syrian Desert Umayyad palaces of the first half of the 8th century, there is also the aforementioned point that the builders also adopted the ultra-semicircular towers that decrease in diameter they higher they go from the Roman ramparts of Cesaraugusta. This latter feature differs from the Umayyads.

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The courses of bossed alabaster stone found in the archeological survey have made it possible to determine the diameter of the towers, those on the extremes being slightly larger (6.70 x 6.74 m.) than the intermediate ones (6.50 m.). To distinguish the reconstruction from the original, Iñiguez Almech decided to use white limestone laid in regular courses on the new parts, so that each part would remain distinguishable. As for the height, it was determined by the traces of the spring lines in the walls at the very top.

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Besides this façade, two other circular tower bases can be seen, the first one corresponding to the southeast corner (photo 6), and the other on the south façade, contiguous to the southeast corner (photo 7). Between these two there are also remains of one of the walls based on ten courses of stone.

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The merlons that crown the towers are a reconstruction by Francisco Iñiguez, which, since none survived (in the elevations of Spanochi they appear to be narrow and pointed), were reconstructed in brick to avoid doubts about their authenticity, since this model, which became popular later, was not found in the taifa period.

The most interesting feature of the towers is in their interior layout, which, as Iñiguez already observed, had a different provenance than the Umayyad palaces.

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They have a solid and massive first floor, followed by two rooms, the first with a passage and lit by loopholes, and over this a second that communicates with the narrow bastion of the wall surfaces.

If I have commented with interest about the interior distribution of these towers it is fundamentally because this access system to the two cited rooms has its solution by means of a double horseshoe arched doorway. The restorers were not able to salvage the original central post, so they made a new one. The arches of at least two towers that can be visited are original: the one closest to the little Mudéjar tower and the one next to it.

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