#6 Great Cathedral and Mosque, Cordoba, SPAIN

 Cordoba's period of greatest glory began in the 8th century after the Moorish conquest, when some 300 mosques and innumerable palaces and public buildings were built to rival the splendours of Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad. The Great Mosque -Aljama- of Cordoba, built during the period of Moorish occupation, is the most splendid Islamic monument in the western world. Its construction commenced in 785, when Abd-ar-Rahman established Cordoba as capital of al-Andalus, on the site of an ancient church dedicated to San Vicente and was extended during successive periods by Abd-ar-Rahman II, Al-Hakam II and Almanzor. In the 13th century, under Ferdinand III, the Saint, Cordoba's Great Mosque was turned into a cathedral and new defensive structures, particularly the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos and the Torre Fortaleza de la Calahorra, were erected.

The Historic Centre of Cordoba now comprises the streets surrounding the monument and all the parcels of land opening on to these, together with all the blocks of houses around the mosque-cathedral. To the south this area extends to the further bank of the River GuadaIquivir (to include the Roman bridge and the Calahorra), to the east to the Calle San Fernando, to the north to the boundary of the commercial centre, and to the west to incorporate the AIcázar des los Reyes Cristianos and the San Basilio quarter. The city, by virtue of its extent and plan, its historical significance as a living expression of the different cultures that have existed there, and its relationship with the river, is a historical ensemble of extraordinary value.

Cordoba is defined by two geographical features: the mountains of the Sierra Morena, with their mineral wealth, and Guadalquivir, which skirts and then cuts through them. It was a flourishing Carthaginian township in 206 BC, when it was captured by the Romans, who recognized its strategic and commercial importance and made it the capital of Hispania Inferior, adorned with fine public and private buildings and enclosed by imposing fortifications. Among its illustrious sons were the two Senecas and the poet Lucan.

With the onset of the barbarian invasions of the 6th century, Roman society on the Iberian peninsula crumbled, and Cordoba fell to the Visigoths. In 756 the Caliph of Damascus set up his court at Cordoba and laid the foundations for the most glorious period of the city's history. He began building the Great Mosque, on the site of a Roman temple of Janus, which had been converted into a church by the Visigoths. Cordoba became the centre of a great realm renowned for its artistic and intellectual predominance and its liberal toleration of other religions, but the Caliphate collapsed after the bitter civil war of 1009-31, and only the Great Mosque survived as a symbol of its achievements. In 1236 the city was captured by Ferdinand III: the mosque became the cathedral and new defensive structures were raised, as befitted its role as a frontier town under constant threat of attack from the Moors. The historic centre, clustering round the mosque-cathedral, preserves much of its medieval urban fabric, with its characteristic narrow, winding streets.

 

Known locally as Mezquita-Catedral, the Great Mosque of Cordoba is one of the oldest structures still standing from the time Muslims ruled Al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia including most of Spain, Portugal, and a small section of Southern France) in the late 8th century. Cordoba is a two hour train ride south of Madrid, and draws visitors from all over the world.

Temple/Church/Mosque/Church

The buildings on this site are as complex as the extraordinarily rich history they illustrate. Historians believe that there had first been a temple to the Roman god, Janus, on this site. The temple was converted into a church by invading Visigoths who seized Corboba in 572. Next, the church was converted into a mosque and then completely rebuilt by the descendants of the exiled Umayyads—the first Islamic dynasty who had originally ruled from their capital Damascus (in present-day Syria) from 661 until 750.

 

A New Capital: Following the overthrow of his family in Damascus by the incoming Abbasids, Prince Abd al-Rahman I escaped to southern Spain. Once there, he established control over almost all of the Iberian Peninsula and attempted to recreate the grandeur of Damascus in his capital, Cordoba. He sponsored elaborate building programs, promoted agriculture, and even imported fruit trees and other plants from his former home. Orange trees still stand in the courtyard of the Mosque of Cordoba, a beautiful, if bittersweet reminder of the Umayyad exile.

The Hypostyle Hall: The building itself was expanded over two hundred years. It is comprised of a large hypostyle prayer hall (hypostyle means, filled with columns), a courtyard with a fountain in the middle, an orange grove, a covered walkway circling the courtyard, and a minaret (a tower used to call the faithful to prayer) that is now encased in a squared, tapered bell tower. The expansive prayer hall seems magnified by its repeated geometry. It is built with recycled ancient Roman columns from which sprout a striking combination of two-tiered, symmetrical arches, formed of stone and red brick.