You may not have heard the name of the city of Cordoba feature prominently in contemporary discussions about Spain but it was once the medieval capital of Spain as well as the richest city in the world at the height of the Umayyad dynasty that dominated Spain following the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711 AD. Before then, it was an ancient city founded by the Romans and served as the capital of the Roman province of Hispania.
My recent European ride on a high-speed train, which is not common here in the US, was from Madrid to Cordoba. The train eerily plowed through the countryside of the Autonoma Communidad (autonomous community/state) of Madrid, Castilla La Mancha into the state of Andalucía, the southernmost state of Spain. You knew you were in Andalucía when the housing patterns and colors change dramatically from elsewhere in Spain. Majority of the towns you sped through had their houses gleaming in blinding white paint. It was later explained to me that it was a logical response to the hot climate that could reach 100 degree Fahrenheit in the summer months, so the white colors help deflect the sunlight and reduce absorption of heat into the houses.
What puts Cordoba on the map and as a world heritage center is the Great Mosque, La Mezquita. You bet I was there, exploring the grounds and the intricate maze of the architectural masterpiece.
La Mezquita supposedly is on the site of an ancient Roman catholic church, which was confiscated by the Muslims and converted to a mosque when they captured the city. However, they expanded the original mosque set up after the capture into a huge edifice in the unique Moorish influenced architecture of the period to a size that made it the second largest mosque in the world. When the catholic kings re-conquered Cordoba in 1236, they returned it to a church status and instead of tearing down the magnificent edifice; a huge cathedral was reconstructed right within the Mezquita even as the entire perimeter was left intact. You now basically step into a mosque courtyard, get passed the massive carved gats, step into the bowels of the spacious mosque and then find a basilica inside.
The original church was believed to be St Vincent constructed about 600AD, which was taken over by the Muslims and outfitted into a Mosque about 784 AD. The successive Muslim rulers kept adding and expanding the Mosque until the last addition to the current size was done in 987 AD, which is a span of about two centuries.
Wondering inside the cavernous space of the Mezquita, without warning you find yourself in the middle of the very ornate church cathedral that is sandwiched without any external walls in the bowels of the former Mosque. And that actually is the bishopric of the Catholic Diocese of Cordoba. The picture above shows parts of the church alter within the mosque interior.
Long before becoming the headquarters of a Muslim caliphate, Cordoba was a very Roman city, and the evidence abound in a few of the houses standing till this day and well maintained roman pillars and columns that dot the downtown landscape. There is still a roman bridge from those ancient times that must be an engineering marvel, even gazing at it with contemporary eyes. The Fortress or Alcazar features prominently in the city, as is the case in a majority of the Spanish cities. It was also very intriguing to note the diversity of ancient Cordoba during the Muslim rule, as there were designated Jewish, Christian and Moslem quarters of the city. La Juderia, the Jewish quarter is a pleasant neighborhood for a tourist to stroll around today to enjoy the quaint beautiful well-decorated floral facades on the small houses and narrow streets and plazas. The public piety was a bit jarring, as it is so unusual, at least in America to find alters on window ledges facing out into the street, with statues of the Virgin Mary or Jesus and holy water font for passersby to break their stride and make quick ablution, muttering some silent prayer.
I had the pleasure of staying in one of the ancient buildings dating back to the roman times that has now been refurbished as a hotel, Palacio del Bailio in the old quarters. It was not until the 16th century that the current building, a medieval palace, was superimposed on the original roman edifice dating back before the Common Era. Back then, I was told; it served as the forte and quarters for roman military leadership. It made sense it was converted into a palace after the roman rule was long extinguished.
An interesting feature was the floor of the dining area that was made of clear glass, from where you could look down as you ate, to see a well preserved original colorfully tiled roman floor several feet below. It also features a roman bath in the basement part of the building, which now serves as a spa but actually consists of various stone constructed Jacuzzi with varying set water temperatures and snaky tunnels for short-lap swimming. In some ways it felt spooky to the modern sensibility, imagine swimming around under your basement. Bearing that in mind though, the hotel also has an outdoor swimming pool embedded in a well-designed garden that bathed the surroundings with jasmine, rose and other flowery scents.
The melding of the modern into different eras of the ancient fabric of Cordoba gives the city a unique quality. Being on a high-speed train route makes Cordoba a true fast trip back into time.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Cordoba: Richest City in the World, Back then...
You may not have heard the name of the city of Cordoba feature prominently in contemporary discussions about Spain but it was once the medieval capital of Spain as well as the richest city in the world at the height of the Umayyad dynasty that dominated Spain following the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711 AD. Before then, it was an ancient city founded by the Romans and served as the capital of the Roman province of Hispania.
My recent European ride on a high-speed train, which is not common here in the US, was from Madrid to Cordoba. The train eerily plowed through the countryside of the Autonoma Communidad (autonomous community/state) of Madrid, Castilla La Mancha into the state of Andalucía, the southernmost state of Spain. You knew you were in Andalucía when the housing patterns and colors change dramatically from elsewhere in Spain. Majority of the towns you sped through had their houses gleaming in blinding white paint. It was later explained to me that it was a logical response to the hot climate that could reach 100 degree Fahrenheit in the summer months, so the white colors help deflect the sunlight and reduce absorption of heat into the houses.
What puts Cordoba on the map and as a world heritage center is the Great Mosque, La Mezquita. You bet I was there, exploring the grounds and the intricate maze of the architectural masterpiece.
La Mezquita supposedly is on the site of an ancient Roman catholic church, which was confiscated by the Muslims and converted to a mosque when they captured the city. However, they expanded the original mosque set up after the capture into a huge edifice in the unique Moorish influenced architecture of the period to a size that made it the second largest mosque in the world. When the catholic kings re-conquered Cordoba in 1236, they returned it to a church status and instead of tearing down the magnificent edifice; a huge cathedral was reconstructed right within the Mezquita even as the entire perimeter was left intact. You now basically step into a mosque courtyard, get passed the massive carved gats, step into the bowels of the spacious mosque and then find a basilica inside.
The original church was believed to be St Vincent constructed about 600AD, which was taken over by the Muslims and outfitted into a Mosque about 784 AD. The successive Muslim rulers kept adding and expanding the Mosque until the last addition to the current size was done in 987 AD, which is a span of about two centuries.
Wondering inside the cavernous space of the Mezquita, without warning you find yourself in the middle of the very ornate church cathedral that is sandwiched without any external walls in the bowels of the former Mosque. And that actually is the bishopric of the Catholic Diocese of Cordoba. The picture above shows parts of the church alter within the mosque interior.
Long before becoming the headquarters of a Muslim caliphate, Cordoba was a very Roman city, and the evidence abound in a few of the houses standing till this day and well maintained roman pillars and columns that dot the downtown landscape. There is still a roman bridge from those ancient times that must be an engineering marvel, even gazing at it with contemporary eyes. The Fortress or Alcazar features prominently in the city, as is the case in a majority of the Spanish cities. It was also very intriguing to note the diversity of ancient Cordoba during the Muslim rule, as there were designated Jewish, Christian and Moslem quarters of the city. La Juderia, the Jewish quarter is a pleasant neighborhood for a tourist to stroll around today to enjoy the quaint beautiful well-decorated floral facades on the small houses and narrow streets and plazas. The public piety was a bit jarring, as it is so unusual, at least in America to find alters on window ledges facing out into the street, with statues of the Virgin Mary or Jesus and holy water font for passersby to break their stride and make quick ablution, muttering some silent prayer.
I had the pleasure of staying in one of the ancient buildings dating back to the roman times that has now been refurbished as a hotel, Palacio del Bailio in the old quarters. It was not until the 16th century that the current building, a medieval palace, was superimposed on the original roman edifice dating back before the Common Era. Back then, I was told; it served as the forte and quarters for roman military leadership. It made sense it was converted into a palace after the roman rule was long extinguished.
An interesting feature was the floor of the dining area that was made of clear glass, from where you could look down as you ate, to see a well preserved original colorfully tiled roman floor several feet below. It also features a roman bath in the basement part of the building, which now serves as a spa but actually consists of various stone constructed Jacuzzi with varying set water temperatures and snaky tunnels for short-lap swimming. In some ways it felt spooky to the modern sensibility, imagine swimming around under your basement. Bearing that in mind though, the hotel also has an outdoor swimming pool embedded in a well-designed garden that bathed the surroundings with jasmine, rose and other flowery scents.
The melding of the modern into different eras of the ancient fabric of Cordoba gives the city a unique quality. Being on a high-speed train route makes Cordoba a true fast trip back into time.
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