Bringing light to beauty with architectural illumination

The Real Alcazar (“Royal Alcazar”), the name of the palace complex, dates back to the 1360s and is still used by the Spanish royal family when visiting the city. It is laid out around the Patio de las Donacellas, the Courtyard of the Maidens, which has also been illuminated by Enel X’s state-of-the-art architectural lighting. Ridley Scott used it as the set for the court in his film “King of Jerusalem,” and it stood in for the Water Gardens of Dorne in Season Six of Game of Thrones. Back when the building was the hub of the government, the Patio was the center of official life. Our work in Seville underlines our belief in lighting as a design feature that ensures architecture and artworks are viewed in harmony with their surroundings. That is a commitment we have demonstrated in over 1500 projects worldwide, including the total overhaul of architectural lighting for Rome’s Pantheon.

In Seville, that means taking account of the city’s mixed Moorish and Christian heritage. The Alcazar is an example of Mudéjar architecture, a decorative style derived from the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. While Pedro I earned his “Cruel” nickname because of a propensity for solving political problems through murder – victims included his French wife Blanche, an aunt, several half-brothers, a cousin and his treasurer – his friendship with the emir of Grenada meant he could turn to Islamic architects for the Alcazar.

While our illumination highlights the building’s Mudéjar elements, the wider point is that this is a new conception of light, of how it can be used it to bring out and preserve the beauty of an area’s artistic and architectural inheritance and promote both economic and cultural development.

This can breathe new life into areas that may have been overlooked earlier, with new energy and new ways of enjoying the city and all of its areas.

At Enel X, we can deal with a huge variety of contexts, from single monuments to entire city centers. Our projects can be permanent, or temporarily in place for a single event, a festival, or a series of happenings. We have developed two approaches: our “niche” approach is for major conservation projects that bring in multiple stakeholders, a wide-ranging process that means a greater investment. Our “lean” approach enables us to move quicker without sacrificing quality by using instruments pre-packaged for different types of architecture, such as church façades, fountains, and so on. 

Our guiding principle is to ensure that the lighting infrastructure intrudes as little as possible, thanks to using the right devices correctly positioned. At the Real Alcazar we employed a total of 126 devices, with 4.36 KW of power and the latest LED projectors. The project obtained energy savings of 45%, demonstrating our commitment to sustainability, thanks to the use of cutting-edge technologies in terms of energy efficiency.

We can deal with each step needed to carry through a project, from design to finance, including construction, materials, installation and maintenance. We bring light to beauty in a way Pedro the Cruel could never have imagined.