The Partal Palace sits quietly in the northern edge of Granada's Alhambra, often overlooked by visitors rushing between the more famous courtyards. Yet this modest structure holds a special distinction—it's the oldest surviving palace in the entire complex, dating back to the early 14th century under Muhammad III.

What strikes you first is how different it feels from the enclosed patios elsewhere. The palace opens directly onto terraced gardens that weren't here originally, created in the 1920s and 30s when archaeologists were excavating the area. But that openness actually works. Standing on the main portico, you get this sense of breathing space that the other palaces, magnificent as they are, sometimes lack.

The portico itself tells an interesting restoration story. Those slender marble columns supporting the arches? They replaced the original brick pillars in 1965. It's one of those changes that makes you wonder what the place really looked like seven centuries ago. The intricate stucco decoration above the arches is largely original though, carved with poems dedicated to Muhammad III by Ibn al-Yayyab.

Behind the portico, there's a mirador chamber that juts out from the fortress walls, offering views over Granada through windows on three sides. The Torre de las Damas, the tower on the left, has its own story of loss—the original wooden dome ceiling was dismantled and shipped to Berlin in the early 1900s, where it sits today in the Pergamon Museum.

The small elevated oratory on the right side is worth the climb up its narrow stairs. This private prayer room, completed under Yusuf I, contains some of the most delicate decorative work in the Alhambra. The mihrab's tiny muqarnas dome and the wooden ceiling with its interlaced eight-pointed stars feel almost intimate after the grandeur of the main palaces.

If you're using an audio guide, the Partal section often gets rushed, but the details here deserve attention. Recent restoration work on the oratory uncovered previously hidden Quranic inscriptions along the ceiling's edge. Even the small houses to the west of the tower contain rare examples of original Nasrid painted decoration—scenes of horsemen and court life that survived when most other painted work didn't.

The reflecting pool in front of the portico catches the afternoon light beautifully, creating those mirror images that Nasrid architects loved. It's a peaceful spot to pause and consider how this "most transparent" Islamic building in Al-Andalus once functioned as an open-air palace for pleasant weather days.