WHAT DOES THE SYMBOL OF EL JARDÍN DE HAMMAM MEAN?
A JOURNEY TO EDEN
The garden is a climate refuge and the most complete work in which humankind collaborates with nature, not to exploit it mercilessly, but to ally with it in a game that enriches and sublimates. The garden is poetry created for all the senses, a meditative experience or, as the Sufi poet Saadi said in the 16th century, “a great silence” that invites contemplation, sensory pleasure and the ecstasy of feeling alive.
It is this combination of pleasure and poetry, or of sensuality and spirituality, that makes this immersive experience of walking through a garden so unique. An experience on which the entire story and creation of El Jardín de Hammam is based: caring for the body and opening oneself to the experience of the present moment. A fragrance that evokes a corner of the garden, the caress of an oil on the skin, the deep sense of relaxation provided by a massage, these are not merely gestures of personal care. They can also be contemplative rituals, like walking calmly through a garden with all the senses wide open. This is the whole story told by our symbol: the representation of a fountain and its four sacred rivers, an ancient icon designed for today.
THE STORY OF A MAGICAL SYMBOL
Several centuries before our era, the Persians had it all: writing, music, philosophy, art and a boundless love for the garden, which was at once poetry, pleasure and spirituality. The Chahar Bagh, literally “four gardens”, is a garden concept in which a central fountain, from which four irrigation channels flow, the “sacred rivers” of milk, honey, wine and water, divides the garden into four symmetrical sections. From this idea of perfection and symmetrical balance comes the spiritual and contemplative dimension of Persian gardens, among the most beautiful in the history of humankind. Around half a dozen of them still remain in Iran today and are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Persian gardens, developed by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BCE, reached extraordinary splendour in the 16th century, when Isfahan, the capital of the Persian Empire, was transformed into a true garden city, an example of ecological urban planning that any city today could envy. But even before that, Persian gardens had already been exported thanks to one of the most fascinating migrations in history: the one that brought many scholars, artists and artisans to the caliphal court of Córdoba and to the other kingdoms of Al-Andalus. In this way, much of the Iberian Peninsula was transformed into a garden as beautiful as it was productive. The lost gardens of Medina Azahara, or those that can still be seen in the Generalife of the Alhambra in Granada, are unique examples of what was a true green revolution, a display of art and engineering, poetry and sensitivity. Today, our symbol is a memory and a tribute to the wonderful Persian gardens that found their Mediterranean, sublime and luminous expression in Al-Andalus.