Saturday 6 January 2024

Andalusia 2019 - Part 7 - Cordoba

There aren't quite as many photos of Cordoba on my camera because in the process of going OTT on photos of the Alcazar in Seville, I filled up my memory card. This has since been solved by buying a much bigger memory card, but at the time, I had to try to quickly delete photos from the memory card I had to make space. It also means two of the photos came from my phone camera. 

St. Raphael is Cordoba's patron saint and protector (https://sientecordoba.com/en/st-raphaels-day/) so there are lots of statues of St. Raphael. My photo of one of them, which features a monster being speared by St. Raphael on side didn't come out quite right, but you get the general idea. A white stone statue of St. Raphael on top of a pillar. On the near side of a pillar a monster that looks like a dragon is climbing up. 

Possibly the most famous site in Cordoba is the Mezquita (or Mosque-Cathedral, depending who is doing the translating) - https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/ 

Two photos of the outside of the Mezquita On the left hand side is another very pretty building with regular towers. I think it is a more modern construction. On the right hand side is the golden stone of the outside of the Mezquita. It is very square with regular crenulations. On the outside, you can see what were the entrance of the mosque. The doorway nearest the front of the photo may be the Bab al-Wuzara ("Viziers' Gate"), now known as the Puerta de San Esteban. It is one of the oldest surviving gates of the mosque and dates from 855. Balcony on the Mezquita. The decorations around the balcony are very mosque, the balcony is very Gothic church. 

I'd read about it and I thought I understood. It was a mosque, and then after the reconquista they turned it into a church. So I was expecting a mosque with church insides. 

That is not what the Mezquita is like. 

Imagine they'd listed the features you'd expect from a mosque and the features you'd expect in a church and written them on cards, then shuffled the cards and built according to the first half a deck drawn. 

And I was mostly getting my head around that when I hit the Renaissance bit (https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/descubre-el-monumento/el-edificio/capilla-mayor-crucero-y-coro/). Quite frankly, I thought I was having heat stroke. 

Every part is beautiful, and the mixture is unique. I thoroughly recommend seeing it for yourself because the pictures do not convey the effect of the mixture. (The pictures in the Wikipedia page do give an excellent taster though - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque%E2%80%93Cathedral_of_C%C3%B3rdoba). 

As part of the coach trip, we got a guided walking tour of Cordoba, which was very much worth it, and very recommended because Cordoba is a very pretty city. 

Due to the heat, many of the houses are built around courtyards, a concept introduced by Moors. Every year there is a Courtyard Flower Festival (https://www.turismodecordoba.org/-en-1-1), which we were far too late for in September, but many of the owners kindly leave the shutters open so you can peek in and see the beautiful interiors. (This, according to the Alhambra tour, was also a style picked up from the Moors, plain outside, pretty inside.) As I said, unfortunately, I ran out of memory card space, so please see a few highlights I was able to capture. Door with a stencilled image of Mary Red and white painted arches in a courtyard behind a church. At the top of the picture, two out of three church bells can be seen. They are also in arches. In the foreground are trees. One, on the right, is very small. Two white-walled houses, with a few tree branches coming in the left hand side of the image. The house on the left has yellow window frames. Between the two houses you can see the top of the tower of the Mezquita. More white walled houses. These have flower pots hanging outside along the wall. Again, the Mezquita can be seen in the gap between the houses. 

Before the Expulsion of the Jews, Cordoba also had a sizable Jewish population. Only one synagogue survived from before the Expulsion, and it is now open as a museum. 

Photo of the inside as it's no longer an active place of worship: Photo of the inside of the synagogue, it is also decorated in Mudejar style, like many of the local buildings. 

For more information - https://www.turismodecordoba.org/synagogue https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/enclaves/enclave-monumental-sinagoga-de-cordoba and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B3rdoba_Synagogue 

Maimonides is from Cordoba, and has a statue near the synagogue. Metal statue of Maimonides. He is wearing a cloth cap and a robe. The metal is a dark brown, but there are golden glints where it is worn. This is particularly strong on the feet of Maimonides, the bottom edge of his beard and robe, and around the book he is holding. 

(A better photo, or at least one without a crowd in front can be seen here - https://www.andalucia.org/en/cordoba-cultural-tourism-monumento-a-maimonides) 

Nearby, there is also a bust of Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Aslam_Al-Ghafiqi). White stone bust on a grey-green stone plinth. Al-Ghafiqi is also wearing a cloth cap and a robe. 

I had a great time in Cordoba.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)