Today we spent most of the day in Cordoba. Yesterday we bought tickets to visit the Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba. The building is a World Heritage Site and we have been wanting to visit it since our first visit to Spain.
Last night was our first warm and muggy night, and because of our location in the city core we had François locked up pretty tight so we could not get as much air as we would have liked. But despite that we still got a pretty good nights sleep.
After a light breakfast and some coffee we headed over to the Mosque/Cathedral. There has been a religious structure on the site since Roman times. The original Christian church was still standing when the Moors conquered Cordoba. The Moslem ruler made a deal to allow the original church to have a duel function as a church and a mosque for 25 years. After that he purchased the church from the local town and tore it down and built a giant mosque on the site. The mosque was considered one of the greatest buildings in the Islamic world and served as a model for mosques in many lands. After the reconquest the mosque was converted to a Catholic Cathedral.
It is a very interesting combination. The main building retains the feel of a mosque, but the exterior walls are covered with Christian art and chapels. The center of the building has been converted to a typical Catholic church with an altar and seating area. The building retains the arches and open feel of the original Moslem design.
There are hundreds of arches aligned in both directions in the main building and it makes the building feel giant, but somehow intimate. We spent about an hour and a half wandering thru the building which is much longer than we spend in most cathedrals.
After we finished with the cathedral we went to visit the Alcazar (castle). It again served as the center of government for centuries under the Romans, Visigoths, Moors and the Spanish. It also retains architecture features from both the Moors and Spanish.
For us the highlight of the Alcazar were the gardens. There are multiple distinct gardens spread out over a large area. We really enjoyed walking thru these gardens and spent another hour in the gardens before heading out to lunch.
To honor Cordobas history we had a lunch of Arab food. The restaurant was run by a young Egyptian couple. The food was good, and the building in the old town was interesting.
After lunch was done it was mid-afternoon and getting hot. We decided to shift to a new area of Spain for us, so tonight we are parked in a small town in the La Mancha region. Tomorrow we are going to follow the path of Don Quixote.
