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01 November 2006 - Córdoba

Writing 2006.11.01.1800

Well, we didn’t do dessert after all and went to bed instead, after reading a bit.

After breakfast, we sallied forth only to duck back to the hotel for some precautionary rain gear– gear ultimately not needed.

Our first goal was the Mezquita, the Mosque/Cathedral of Córdoba. When we got there a bit after ten, we realized that it was All Souls Day and the Cathedral was actually in use! We figured out that it would be open at 1400 so we went to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos – the Fortress of the Christian Kings. We wandered about the building, which was built on a previous building dating back to Roman times. The palace/fortress was one of the sites of the Inquisition. Adjacent to the palace is a series of gardens, Italianate in flavor, that had been added in the past 100 – 200 years. These were pleasant, but not that remarkable. Being “fortressed-out”, we moved on.

Córdoba - the Alcázar click thumbnail for larger image
The bell tower of the Mezquita	A rather heroic statue dripping nobility - I think it's Alfonso XI who had the fortress built.	Some low arches inside.	The wall and the gardens beyond.
A peek at the gardens from atop the battlements.	Jonathan taking a snap.	One of the towers - Jonathan on the walkway with camera.	Another perspective shot.
One of the mosaics relocated to the site.	Another mosaic relocated to the palace. (see text of plaque below).	The chapel where the mosaics were located - Jonathan walking up the aisle.	Some of the ruins on the site - not accessible to visitors.
One of the low cells below the fortress. Jonathan speculated that they might have kept prisoners here.	Another view of the gardens.	The water features were quite nice.	A monument memorializing Ferdinand and Isabella commissioning Christopher Columbus.
Jonathan on the patio where we had lunch. The doors of the archeological museum are beyond in the shade of the pine tree.	On a plaque outside the Alcázar, the following text is presented: “This was constructed by order of King Alfonso XI in 1328 and was the usual residence of the Christian Kings when they stayed in Córdoba. The donjon and Leones tower, in the main façade, are original. The Inquisition tower was added in the XVth century by the Catholic Sovereigns. The Palomas tower is a XXth century reconstruction. Important undertakings have been planned inside this building such as the discovery of America or the reconquest of Granada. There are very interesting Gothic Tower vaults, the mudejar patio and baths, made under the reign of King Alfonso XI. During the Modern Ages it was the seat of the Inquisition. The Baroque chapel was built in the XVIIth century. In the XIXth century it was used as a prison building and in the XXth it was bought by the Town Council. It was then provided with gardens and decorated with Roman mosaics from the Corredera Square and a beautiful IIIth century sarcophagus.”

We went on to the Archeological Museum (which we had located earlier after discovering the Mezquita was not open yet), which remained resolutely closed. We made lunch out of tapas at a bar / restaurant in the square outside the museum and sat the enjoying a leisurely experience waiting for 1400 to arrive. At that time, the museum remained closed, so we returned to the Mosque, paid our admission and entered the building.

The Grand Mosque of Córdoba has to be one of the most unique pieces of architecture in the world. The prevailing Moslem architecture of the day starting in 785 with local influences with three successive expansions followed by the construction of a cathedral, within the mosque itself, resulted in a building unmatched anywhere in the world.

The corner where you enter the building is dark and dimly lit from panels to your left letting in the natural light. Chandeliers with dim orange bulbs, simulating candles or oil lamps provide subtle lighting. It really emphasized the entry into a different world. The famous red and white arches march away down lines of perspective with pools of light from other features.

We frequently used the pillars to brace our cameras as we took pictures because the low light was requiring some long shutter times (and therefore the risk of blurry photos). I commented to Jonathan that we looked like a pair of tree-huggers when we were up close and personal with the columns.

The cathedral has been plopped down smack dab in the middle of the mosque, so we walked around the edges where the remnants of the original architecture are strongest, before exploring the cathedral itself. As is typical with the cathedrals of Europe, various chapels lined the edge of the building – in this case, blocking the original horseshoe-arched doors of the mosque.

In the center sits the cathedral clad in white marble with an elliptical dome and high windows admitting the afternoon light – a stark contrast to the stonework and masonry in the dim portion of the mosque with its forest of columns and arches. Where the cathedral exalts its function with ornamentation, the mosque uses repetition.

Córdoba - the Mezquita click thumbnail for larger image
Upon entry into the mosque, you feel like you're in a different world.	The chandeliers marching away into the distance.	One of the panels letting in  natural light.	The signature red and white arches.
The barrel vault seen at the top of this shot is part of the cathedral construction.	The mosque was built on the site of a Visigoth church - the basilica of San Vincente - these mosaics, several feet below the floor level of the mosque, are remains of that building.	A horseshoe arch, characteristic of Moorish architecture, contrasting with a Renaissance (?) painting behind.	I took this shot to show the differences in the columns - the closest is a medium rose color, while the next one is dark, and the one beyond that is light.
Jonathan "tree-hugging" a column to provide stationary support for the camera.	The ceiling in the mosque was intricately worked.	Stained glass in the building.	Perspective shot - the areas of light usually correspond to the cathedral portion, as the clerestory windows brought in a fair amount of light.
The transition between the mosque and the cathedral - it appears as if the designer of the cathedral used elements from the mosque to ease the transition.	The Parish of the Tabernacle (Parroquia del Sagario) - the arches were painted over.	The sheer expanse of the columns and arches was amazing.	The arches felt like the canopy of a forest.
Another perspective shot.	More.	Perspective shot - the window at the end is shown in the next image.	This was the stained glass window at the end of the nave in the previous shot (and the first image on this row).
Contrasting the Muslim arches with Christian imagery.	The cathedral is one of the few with an oval dome.	The ornate altarpiece of the cathedral.	Another contrast - the red and white arches of the mosque with an arch of the cathedral behind them.
The doors along one side of the mosque.	The church-supplied brochure comes across as very defensive about the Reconquest and studiously ignores the fact that the local population at the time or the Reconquest was predominantly Muslim (as they converted the mosque to a church). It also describes the 700 year presence of a Muslim population as an "Islamic intervention." This is clearly a case of history being written by the winners. While some of the books I read in preparation for the trip described the placement of the cathedral in the mosque as a form of artistic (as opposed to religious) desecration, I think that the presence of the cathedral in the mosque is what has saved it. To my knowledge, there are no other mosques surviving in Spain -- all others having been converted to churches or torn down to build churches. By having the mosque and cathedral as a single integral building, we have a chance to see and imagine what a Moorish mosque looks like, and juxtapose the style and sensibilities of Islamic culture to the Christian culture that reconquered the Iberian peninsula.

We left the mosque and walked across the street to where we had some ice cream. While there I read the church brochure I picked up going into the mosque and started reading. Yeesh - talk about defensive! The bulk of the brochure seemed to be an apologia for taking over the mosque for Christian worship (the standard procedure during the Reconquest for both mosques and synagogues) while taking the attitude of “he did it first,” citing the Visigoth structure that the Moors had replaced with the mosque.

Text from the church brochure.

"It is a historical fact that the basilica of San Vincente was expropriated and destroyed in order to build what would later be the Mosque, a reality that questions the theme of tolerance that was supposedly cultivated in the Córdoba of the moment."

And the Spanish Inquisition was the epitome of tolerance? At least the Moorish rulers of Córdoba didn't require their Christian and Jewish subjects to convert to Islam. It also worth noting that it was standard procedure for the conquering Christians to expropriate the mosques and synagogues in the territories under domination. While the expropriation of the mosque of Córdoba was not unusual, the fact that a goodly portion of the original building survived is.

From there we meandered back to the hotel for a little siesta and reading. At 1800, we came down to the bar for our glass of wine and diary time.

Writing 2006.11.02.1900 Toledo

After our drink we walked one last time across the river to a restaurant just on the other side. We sat outside watching the people and traffic go by. We got there around 1930 and were among the first to sit down. By the time we left around 2100, all the tables were full. I had a paella that was good but not exciting. At a table – more accurately a barrel – next to us were three men, one who was quite boisterous and judging by the reactions of the women walking/driving by, was calling out some tart or salacious remarks – none of them we understood. He started talking to Jonathan who shrugged and said (in Spanish) that he didn’t speak the language. Afterwards we hoofed it back to the hotel for the evening.

Jonathan's page for November 01

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Last Updated: April 15, 2007