Cordoba, Wednesday, March 12, 2025
I was wide awake early, at 6 AM, feeling refreshed after a good first night’s sleep. I went down at 6:30 in search of coffee, and, rather than send me to a cafe the lovely staff at the hotel brought me a cappuccino to drink in the lounge. I went down to the breakfast room at 8 and Sue joined me soon after. The breakfast room is rather beautiful, and the buffet terrific. The fruit is extraordinary, especially the oranges and orange juice.
Paul and Sue had had a rough first night, and slept in, so Sue and I headed for the Mezquita, the great mosque that had been turned into a cathedral after the Reconquest. The mosque covers a full, very large city block. You enter first into the Patio des Aranjas, an enormous courtyard filled with orange trees (it was probably planted with palm trees during Moslem times). It is said to be the oldest walled garden in the world.
The normal entrance to the mosque would have been in the center of the north wall, but the tourist entrance is now in the northwest corner. Once inside, you gaze through the dimly lit space into what seems to be an infinite number of arched columns.
This image gives a better sense of the luminous colors of the arches.
These images are all from the oldest part of the mosque, built in the years after 785. The Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula had begun in the early years of the century, and by 781 Abd al-Rahman I, the first Emir of Cordoba, had quashed all resistance by the Visigoths who had ruled the peninsula since the end of the Roman Empire.
During the next two centuries, Cordoba grew in importance and size; some scholars believe it was, along with Constantinople, the largest city in in the Western world. In order to accommodate the growing number of worshipers, the mosque was expanded three times between 833 and 988; the first two expansions added bays (defined by rows of columns) to the south, while the third, undertaken by the last Emir before the Reconquest, expanded the mosque laterally, adding eight naves to the east. The second of these expansions added the mosque’s most remarkable features, including a new mihrab, a small octagonal alcove that served to orient worshipers to the quibla, or direction of prayer, as they prostrated themselves. Interestingly, the mosque is not oriented toward Mecca, but rather toward Morocco. Explanations for this vary. Many guidebooks claim that this orientation was dictated by a preexisting Visigoth church dedicated to St. Vincent, but this claim, as well as an earlier one that the
The mihrab itself and especially the horseshoe arch that leads to it is one of the most beautiful religious structures we have ever seen.
The mosaics were created by Byzantine artisans loaned to the Emir by the Eastern Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas.
After the reconquest of Spain–Cordoba fell to King Ferdinand II of Castile in 1236–the Christian rulers continued to employ Muslim artisans; they, and the style of artwork they created, are called Mudéjar. The first Christian chapel was established already in 1236 underneath the large ribbed vault that is now called the Villaviciosa Chapel.
The back wall of the chapel is almost as extraordinary as the mihrab.
The mosque’s character was changed forever, though, beginning in 1523, when construction was begun on a Renaissance cathedral smack in the middle of the mosque.
This picture, looking into the transept from the crossing, shows how the cathedral was built: some of the mosque’s arches were destroyed, while the other walls were simply built on top of the arches.
The choir has intricately carved stalls.
The baroque altar dates from the seventeenth century.
We had already spent two hours in the Mezquita when Paul and Sue caught up with us; we were more than happy to do the whole thing again!
One final note. The mosque’s minaret was originally refunctioned as a bell tower, but it was damaged in a storm in 1589; a new bell tower was built that incorporated the minaret. Here is the iconic view of the tower, seen from the “street of the flowers.”
After grabbing a very quick bite–Spanish ham on a baguette, eaten on the hoof–we had a look at Cordoba’s Alcazar or royal palace. Ferdinand and Isabella spent a good deal of time here and in fact conducted their interviews with Chris Columbus before he took their money and their blessing to the new world. Not a lot left to see, however. Here are three musketeers with the Alcazar gardens behind them.
Kings and Queens behind us, we undertook an exploration of the Jewish quarter. We passed through an interesting series of courtyards set aside for craftsmen.
There are apparently only three synagogues left in all of Spain, and one of them is in Sevilla. It is a small space, probably meant for a small community; although the excavations revealed a lot of damage, much of the stone fretwork has survived.
Turning a corner, we came face to face with…a bullfighting museum!
I admit that I was more than a little unsettled, because it brought back long suppressed memories of my one bullfight: in Pamplona in 1970 during the “running of the bulls.” It is a cruel, gory extravaganza. The museum, in a lovely old mansion, is very well done, with displays not just of toreadors, but of bull breeding, matador training, etc.
OK, a day with a mosque turned into a cathedral, a synagogue dug from the rubble, and the demise of many bulls, what was left? Well, Cordoba’s famous patios, that’s what. Virtually all the homes in the old town have a central patio, where the family goes to escape the heat. There is even an annual competition to choose the best-decorated patio run by, what else, the Cordoba Patio Association. We strolled to the San Basilio neighborhood, where a number of families have banded together to offer a patio tour.
The patios are really lovely, but, in the end, much of a muchness. It was a nice stroll around the neighborhood, though.
And yes, they do take the whole thing very seriously.
After a drink back at the hotel (one of the things we can’t figure out is how to get a drink before dinner: the bars all serve food and don’t open until 8:30!) we had dinner at a great place called Casa Rubio.
More rounds of tapas followed by delicious main courses: lamb for the ladies, venison for the gents.