Córdoba – the incredible Mosque/Cathedral

We left Seville and traveled about 1.5 hours to the city of Córdoba. Once again there was an old city surrounded by both Arabic and medieval walls, and a modern new city. Our mission was the Mosque – Cathedral of Córdoba. The entire complex covers 6 acres. It was originally started in the 8th century. The original minaret was built in the 9th century. When the Mosque was later converted to a Christian Church the minaret was covered by a baroque tower. To get the building to a great height they used double arches. The original mosque had over 1,000 arches, but because of modifications to it when it was converted to a church there are only 850 columns. Around the year 900 Córdoba was the largest city in Europe with over 600,000 inhabitants. It was the major trade center for Spain.

There was a special event at the Cathedral, the religious floats from Córdoba and surrounding areas were on display. They had had a huge procession of the floats the prior Saturday and now were on display. They were quite ornate and interesting to see. They can weigh between 2 – 4,000 pounds and are carried on the shoulders of the church members.

The double arched building supports

One of the floats

The altar of the Cathedral

The bell tower which covers the minaret

The next part of the tour was through the Jewish quarter. Jews had been here for over 1,000 years. They served as doctors, bankers and advisors to the Sultans. Around the year 1100, they were forced to convert to Islam. They were always the minority group in Spain, to either the Muslims and later after Spain had been conquered by Christians to them. In 1492, the Jews who were in Spain were either expelled or forced to convert to Christianity.

The great Jewish doctor, philosopher, mathematician and thinker Maimonides was born in Córdoba.

Statue of Maimonides

We then went to the Córdoba train station to travel on to Madrid.

When we got to Madrid, we rushed out to the Reina Sophia Museum. This is where Picasso’s Guernica is on display. We also saw some Miro, Dali, El Greco and Goya. We could not photograph the Guernica.

Dali

Then we were off to dinner. We had wanted paella and finally tonight we had it.