The summer palace for Charles V was begun in 1527 right inside the Alhambra, among the Nasrid courtyards and towers on the Sabika hill. Pedro Machuca, who is said to have studied under Michelangelo, set a stone square there with sides of 63 meters and cut a round courtyard 30 meters in diameter into it. Around the courtyard are two tiers of galleries on 32 Doric columns.
The square and the circle recur inside as well, in the halls and on the staircases with curved railings. Machuca died in 1550, and his son Luis carried on with the facades and the courtyard. The palace was finally completed only in 1956.
