Granada commits to Amazigh culture
After two years of work and an investment of €1.2 million, the Patronato de la Alhambra has completed the restoration of Carmen de los Porcel, a 20,000-head waiter space that was once a dungeon and necropolis and will become a museum in 2026 to showcase Amazigh culture, or the culture of the Berber peoples.
Granada thus recovers the Carmen de los Porcel as a museum of Amazigh culture, with ten centuries of history opposite the Alhambra in Granada.
This monument dates back to the 11th century and has been a cemetery, dungeon and stately home, and has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
On the initiative of the Dr Leila Mezian Foundation, this space will house this museum of Amazigh culture in honour of the late Dr Leila Mezian Benjelloun and with the aim of strengthening cultural ties between Morocco and Spain. The Foundation is the institution that will take on the museographic design of the space in the coming months.
The opening ceremony was held on 4 September and was attended by the president of the Bank of Africa, Othman Benjelloun, and Dunia Benjelloun, both relatives of Dr Leila Mezian, who passed away in July 2024. The event was also attended by the co-president of the Three Cultures Foundation and advisor to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, André Azoulay, and the Regional Minister of Culture of the Andalusian Regional Government, Patricia del Pozo Fernández. Also in attendance were the Deputy Minister of Culture and Sport of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Macarena O'Neill, the Andalusian Government's representative in Granada, Antonio Granados, and the Councillor for Culture of the City Council of Granada, Juan Ramón Ferreira, among other dignitaries.
In this regard, the Andalusian Minister of Culture praised the project for ‘combining innovation and tradition in an exemplary manner, maintaining the overall architectural and historical configuration of the complex, while adapting it for its future use as a museum: the Amazigh Space’.
According to Patricia Del Pozo, the Amazigh Space ‘will open its doors to the public in March 2026 and will house a permanent exhibition of Amazigh objects collected by Dr Mezian over more than five decades, highlighting the historical and artistic links between Andalusia and Amazigh culture’. The space will also feature several audiovisual installations, as well as pieces donated by diplomat Jorge Dezcallar and his wife.
The aim of this cultural space is to raise awareness of the influence of Amazigh culture (the original inhabitants of North Africa) in Al-Andalus, with a special emphasis on the decisive role played by the Zirid dynasty in the founding of the city and its establishment as the capital of the independent taifa of Granada.
In autumn, the gardens of Carmen de los Porcel will be open to the public, which will be a milestone in the incorporation of visits to the monument of the enclaves located on the Mauror Hill, the third of the complex alongside the Alhambra and the Generalife.
The Carmen de los Porcel site, whose earliest structures date back to the Nasrid period and were used as a warehouse, dungeon and burial ground, is one of the most important heritage sites managed by the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.
