Mosque of Cordoba, essential visit of the World Heritage monument

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Forest of columns in the Mosque of Cordoba in Spain

I will tell you that it took me many years to meet her, but possibly my greatest traveling experience has allowed me to appreciate her great majesty much better.

I'm talking about the Mosque of Cordoba, in Andalusia, without a doubt one of the most impressive monuments you can visit in Spain, and now one of my favorites.

However, among the curiosities about the Mosque of Cordoba, I will tell you that in the ranking of museums and monuments of Spain, because of the number of visitors they receive per year, it barely enters the top 10.

Dome of the old Mihrab of the Mosque of Cordoba

This confirms to me that it is a monument not sufficiently known, taking into account the impressive historical and artistic value it has.

In your travel to Andalusia sure you have visited Seville Y Pomegranate, but, you may not have stopped at Cordova for at leastvisit your mosque, as it happened to me for many years.

Now my advice is that you plan a trip through the south of Spain the Mosque of Cordoba It must be an essential visit.

I hope you will be impressed by the enormous beauty of this building that was the best show of the muslim art in Spain, and the biggest mosque in the west.

History of the Mosque of Cordoba

The Mosque of Cordoba It was built between 786 and 988, in different phases, and became the best example of the strength of the Umayyad Caliphate from Cordova.

Here you have a video of our visit to Córdoba where of course we visit the Mosque.

The mosque began to be built on the grounds of a ancient Visigoth church, the church of San Vicente, of which in your visit to the mosque you can still see some archaeological remains.

Abderraman I he was the impeller of the mosque, which in its first phase had eleven longitudinal ships that ended in the wall of the qibla

By then I was presenting the spectacular forest of columns, image historically associated with the Mosque of Cordoba.

It should be noted that said qibla, oriented to Guadalquivir river, don't look at Mecca, as usual in Muslim mosques, of which the reason is unknown.

This original mosque was followed by three extensions made by Abderraman II, Al Hakam II Y Almanzor.

Patio de los Naranjos in the Mosque of Córdoba

In the first and in the second, the temple is extended towards the river.

And it is in this second extension when the area of ​​greatest architectural beauty of the Mosque, which occupies the beautiful macsura and the mihrab, with a splendid decoration.

The third expansion of Almanzor It has the largest area, and this time it had to be done by building new longitudinal ships on the south side.

In this way, the Mosque of Cordoba It reached capacity for up to 30,000 parishioners, compared to 7,500 of the original mosque.

Subsequently, after the entry of King Ferdinand III in Córdoba in the year 1236, the Mosque of Córdoba was consecrated as Cordoba Cathedral.

Nave of the gothic church of the 13th century in the old mosque of Cordoba

From then on, in the Muslim monument a transformation began to turn it into a Christian cathedral.

The first performance was carried out in 1266, when a gothic nave and a main chapel, which is currently known as the Villaviciosa chapel.

This reform did not imply a great deterioration of the original structure of the Muslim temple, as you can see in your visit.

However, the most important reform carried out in the Mosque of Cordoba, and also the most controversial, took place in the 16th century, when ecclesiastical authorities set out to build in the center of the Muslim temple achristian cathedral with a cruise and a new High altar Renaissance style.

Choir stalls of the Christian cathedral of the Mosque of Cordoba

Finally the intervention had to be approved by the own King Carlos Iwho after visit the Mosque of Córdoba Once the works were finished, he expressed his disapproval of the great deterioration of the original monument of the mosque.

This debate in a way still continues to this day with the double facet of the temple as a mosque-cathedral.

But it must be recognized that precisely this "integration" is what has led to the preservation of the mosque, compared to what happened with other ancient mosques,

Recall that in the case of the old mosque in Seville it was directly demolished and replaced by a new Christian cathedral.

Choir of the Christian cathedral of the Mosque of Cordoba

The construction of the renaissance basilica, with its large central dome, it extended for almost a century, until the year 1600.

Subsequently, in the year 1757, the spectacular choir stalls, baroque style.

The Mosque of Cordoba in 1984 it was declared World Heritage by Unesco.

Currently, in your visit to the Mosque Cathedral of Córdoba, you can see its exterior walls, with the different doors, as the main one, known as the Gate of Forgiveness, or the most beautiful of Muslim origin, the Doors of Al Hakam II.

Through them you will access the beautiful Patio de los Naranjos.

And within the religious building you can enjoy the famous forest of columns, with its different extensions, as well as the impressive architectural area of ​​the macsura and the mihrab,

And of course, you can also stroll through the aforementioned Gothic nave and the Renaissance basilica, the current religious center of this monument.

Gothic nave of the 13th century in the Mosque of Cordoba

More information about the Mosque of Córdoba

Official website of the Mosque Cathedral of Córdoba

Schedules and ticket prices to visit the Mosque of Cordoba

This is the guided night tour El Alma de Córdoba in the Mosque of Córdoba

Patio de los Naranjos in the Mosque of Córdoba

Puerta del Perdón, main access to the Patio de los Naranjos of the Mosque of Córdoba

Al Hakam II doors in the Mosque of Cordoba

This is the Renaissance Christian cathedral of the Mosque of Cordoba

Photo tour through the Patio de los Naranjos of the Mosque of Cordoba

Exterior doors of the Mosque of Cordoba

Photo Gallery of the interior of the Mosque of Córdoba

Macsura and the mihrab of the Mosque of Cordoba

Christian Gothic nave of the Mosque of Cordoba

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Video: Cordoba, Spain Grand Mosque, UNSECO World Heritage Site, La Mezquita, Spains most important histo (March 2024).