Audiovisual Fiction and World Heritage Sites in Medium-Sized Spanish Cities: The Alhambra of Granada and the Royal Alcazar of Seville (1905–2023)

Abstract

This article analyses the production of audiovisual fiction as an instrument for disseminating the image of the Alhambra (Granada) and the Royal Alcazar (Seville) for tourism purposes. The methodology used was twofold: qualitative, carrying out an exhaustive bibliographic review, but also quantitative, using primary sources, through the identification of the films shot, visualization and collection of metadata of the scenes filmed. The information, previously structured, also allows a double analysis: temporal, considering five stages, and spatial, identifying and mapping more than twenty significant places within both sites. In its temporal dimension, the main conclusion refers to the different significance of cinema in the dissemination of the image of both sites: very prominent during Franco’s regime, with a profusion of foreign productions (Alhambra), while from the democratic period onwards it is the Royal Alcazar which offers a greater number of filming. In its spatial dimension, it has been verified that the 19th century formats in charge of disseminating images established a canon of places according to a certain degree of exoticism, which has been perpetuated by cinematography without significant changes.

Global Cities in Transition: New York and Madrid in the Films of Chus Gutiérrez

“…The references on the representation of the city of Madrid and its neighborhoods are extensive, both from more historical perspectives such as that of Deltell (2006), as well as from approaches to specific works, such as that of López-Cabrales (2019) in the analysis of Alma Gitana or Carmen y Lola, of special interest for this work. Representations of Granada, the city in which Sacromonte takes place, have also received scholarly attention, with Puche Ruiz and Gámir (2023) as one of the most recent.…”