Córdoba - Mezquita-Catedral

Córdoba shares its history with so many cities in Southern Spain. It was Carthaginian and Roman (from 260BC on), later it belonged to the Byzantine Empire for two decade, got looted by the Vandals, before Visigoths conquered it in 572. In 711 it was taken by the by the Umayyad army and became a provincial capital.

At that time a Christian church erected by the Visigoths was on the site, it was divided and shared by Muslims and Christians. The sharing agreement lasted until 784, when the Christian half was purchased by the Emir Abd al-Rahman I, who then demolished the church and started to build the grand mosque of Córdoba on its ground. This narrative goes back to the tenth-century historian al-Razi.

The work of building the Mezquita employed thousands of artisans and labourers. After the first completion it underwent numerous subsequent changes: Abd al-Rahman II ordered a new minaret, Al-Hakam II enlarged the building and enriched the Mihrab. The Mezquita reached its current dimensions in 987 with the completion of the outer naves and courtyard.

It covers an area of more than 23.000 m².

The Mezquita still is one of the largest sacred buildings on earth. In the 10th century it was in the center of Cordoba, that with a population of upto 500.000, at that time it was one of the largest cities in the known world.

After in 1236 Córdoba was captured from the Moors, the Christians initially left the architecture Mezquita undisturbed.
The just consecrated it, dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, and used it as a place of Christian worship. Later small chapels were inserted and the the minaret was converted into a the bell tower of the cathedral.

The most significant alteration was the building of a Renaissance cathedral in a cruciform layout right in the center of the former mosque.

The brick-and-stone striped arches are supported by 856 granite and marble pillars, coming from Romans and Visigothic ruins. Many of them are dotted with small carved graffiti. They may date to the time, when the mosque was taken by the Christian troops. Of course they could as well be much older - or younger.