La Mezquita, Cordoba
The mosque-cathedral of Cordoba. One of those places I had heard of vaguely, but never thought I would visit. Yet here I am, and having not done much genning up before arriving, the size and scale of the place are amazing.
A walk around the outside of the walls is over a kilometre. And for a lot of that distance the walls look as if they are city walls, or those of a castle or citadel.
But there are traces of it being a religious site at various points of the walls. Arches, shrines, and other additions which tell the story of how this huge site has changed over the centuries.
A third of the site is a courtyard, and is cleverly set out with little channels for water to flow to the uniformly laid out orange trees which are bearing fruit and beginning to drop down wonderful smelling blossom.
The outer walls function as if to make this area like a cloister, with only the magnificent bell tower to the north, updated from its original use as a minaret.
But this is nothing compared to stepping inside the main building. The cathedral is the third largest in the world and its whole being is just flabbergasting.
There was a sixth century Visigoth basilica of San Vicente on this site, but when Abd al-Rahman declared Cordoba as an independent Caliphate he built a mosque in its place in the late eighth century.
Four of his successors expanded the mosque; Abd al-Rahman II in the mid ninth century, Abd al-Rahman III in the mid tenth century, Al Hakam II in the late tenth century, and the final largest expansion by Almanzor at the end of the tenth century to make it the size it is today. When that was complete the mosque could hold forty thousand worshippers.
But as the Moors were driven from southern Spain by Catholic kings, the mosque was converted to be a Catholic temple in the middle of the twelfth century.
This wasn’t done by demolishing and rebuilding. The numerous supporting pillars and arches inside are the original ones (and show differences in design in line with how the space was expanded and changed over time).
Instead a quite simply stunning nave, choir, and chancel were built from west to east within the existing structure.
And a high domed roof was added above the crossing space to allow light to stream in.
When adding these parts they did not spare the bling.
But they respected the original supporting columns. So much so that the orange trees in the courtyard were planted at exactly the same intervals the columns inside the building were spaced at when Bishop Reinoso planted them at the end of the sixteenth century.
Around the Gothic cathedral additions there are wide open spaces between the original pillars. They could probably take every chair from every house within the old city walls and place them inside here and still have room for more.
It boggles my mind about how they could possibly have a coherent mass or service in here now.
All the way around the interior there are now chapels. I lost count of how many there were, and the guide doesn’t capture all of them. There are a number being renovated. But I think if you used a different chapel to pray at every week, it would be over a year before you got around to using the same one twice.
There are a lot of people inside. There are easily double figures worth of different tour groups being guided around. I think there must be at least a thousand people milling around as we do our own milling. There may be some pinch points at the most spectacular sights, but it doesn’t feel full or like you are being rushed around it.
We didn’t time how long we were there for, but it was probably a couple of hours, and I took an absolute shed load of pictures, but still it feels as if we have only scratched the surface of the place.
And on leaving it was unusual. There is no exit through the gift shop. Apart from the ticket office and the audio guide booth, there is no shop at all on site. For all my favourite exit through the gift shop items I had to resort to trying the tat ships outside the La Mezquita complex.
It would be worth coming to Cordoba just to visit this magnificent building and experience it for yourselves. No amount of words or pictures from me can really do it the justice it deserves.
For other articles from out trip to Andalucia in March 2024, check out the list below
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