La Gran Mezquita/Cathedral de Córdoba!

I STILL haven't gotten around to doing some posts on Barcelona, but I decided to shelve them for later, since I have yet to do a post on what the heck is in Córdoba, aka the city where I'm studying!

Don't worry, though, there are plenty of travel posts on the way. Within the next two months, I have two excusions to Seville & Granada, which PRESHCO has planned for us. Right now, I'm also planning visits to the cities of Jaén, Málaga & Jerez de la Frontera all in Andalucía as well as a weekend trip to Bilbao in Euskadi/Basque Country. There are hot & heavy political & geographical disputes surrounding the Basque Country, which I'll go into more detail about later, but you can easily google it yourself in the meantime if you're intrigued. Hopefully I'll be going to Gibraltar & Morocco in late April/early May & hopefully with some other PRESHCO folks. And of course I have Lisbon + Madrid round #2 for my vacation, as well as one last hurrah across Spain with my mom & aunt when my program ends before we take Paris by storm. With the possible exception to squeezing in an Andalucían beach trip and or the possibility of the Seville Feria (the city's extremely popular spring fair so that's a BIG IF....), it sounds like this is the final "line-up" of my travels. Not too bad, I'd say!

During orientation- which was 2 weeks or so ago!- PRESHCO took us to all of the popular sites of the city. First stop was the Great Mosque/Cathedral. It was first used as a Visigoth-era church & before that, a Roman temple. Although the Arabs began transforming it into a mosque around 785-86 A.D. after they had conquered much of Iberia earlier in the century. It was completed around 965 A.D. The Abd al-Rahman I dynasty ruled from 756-1031 & were noted patrons of the arts, with the mosque as no exception. This dynasty is considering to be a "Golden Age" of sorts in the area. While much of Europe was in the dark ages during the 10th century, Córdoba was flourishing thanks to its numerous mosques (as many as 300!), libraries (one with as many as 400,000 titles copied by hand!), observatories, acqueducts/technological innovations, its baths, its renowed university (one of the first in Europe!), craftspeople & scholars. As in Toledo's Golden Age, large Christian, Muslim & Jewish communities thrived simultaneously & some historians argue the city was the largest city in the world of its time, with close to 1 million inhabitants! Until Seville began the capitol of Al-Andalus in 1031 thanks to Arab infighting & the city was eventually conquered in 1236 by Fernando III of Castille, anyway....

Today it may have just a little more than 300,000 people, but it's still lovely of course!

After visiting the Mezquita, I can see why some historians believe a pilgramage to it may have been considered equal to one to Mecca during the Golden Age. The large outside is an enclosed square (& my new favorite place to write postcards to folks or do some reading for classes since it's a short walk away from the Facultad!)

Just one part of the exterior/entrances.



One shot of the massive courtyard. To the left is one of its several fountains used for decorative purposes as well as providing water for its visitors to clense themselves with before entering. You can also see the irrigation system which provides water to the fountains as well as the trees in the courtyard. It was an extremely advanced system for its time for sure.



This shot of the exterior includes the bell tower which was added when it was (re)converted into a cathedral after the fall of Al-Andalus.



Close-up of one of the 19 doors which would've filled the Mezquita with light during one of the five daily prayers each day.



The mezquita seems to extend endlessly- during Córdoba's Golden Age, it was an estimated 23,000 square feet! Including 14,000 square feet of a prayer hall with almost 1300 arches- 850+ of which remain today. The dramatic repeated columns & double flying arches reminded me of candy canes. They incorporate the Roman style marble pillars- but are actually made of onyx, granite & jasper along with marble....





Except, as our tour guide showed us, there are some remnants of the structure's use as a Roman temple which remain. Such as this (alabaster NOT marble) column.



As with the synagogue in Toledo, curators are currently restoring the original floor. Quite marvelous, no?



In the prayer hall, there are upper arches which spring from rectangular posts that specifically serve to increase the volume of the interior space in order to provide circulation (how else could the thousands of Muslims in prayer head the leaders?!). Oh and to provide general awe of everything, too, I guess. Even though these "Horseshoe arches" were first favored by Visigoths, they became a component of Islamic architecture in the West, as did the white stone & red brick voussoirs.



You can tell which ones are originally from the Visigoth era due to the details.



The Maksura, the enclosure reserved for the caliph + lucky family/friends/entourage. The dramatic interweaving is an example of what some refer to as "Islamic Baroque"



Close-up:



The Mihrab, where visitors gathered for prayers. It was the holy santuary where the Koran was kept- allegedly a copy by the Caliph's own hand & adorned with his blood. The Mihrab itself is adorned with inscriptions and small glazed ceramic & glass pieces ( tesserae ) from the Byzantine era, a master of the art sent from Constantinople. Thus, there is cross-connections of the medieval Mediterranean's different cultures & faiths through trade & diplomacy.



Close-up:



Sometimes, I was so busy admiring what was in front of me, I almost forgot to look up! Good thing I remembered: like the Maksura, the celings reflect Islamic interest in math & gemometry as sources of inspiration as well as fascinating abstrations. The fact that Islam forbids depictions of the Prophet likely has a lot to do with this. Though the last photo is from *I believe* the cathedral portion (re)built after Al-Andalus' fall.









And then I saw things like this & remember how Carlos V ordered part of the mosque be gutted to make room for the cathedral which still stands smack in the middle of the whole thing today. Of course, he regretted it later, saying to his archeitects that "What you are building here can be found anywhere, but what you have destroyed exists nowhere." So true, but also of course, too little too late.



Close-up of the details of the facade of the Chapel Royal:



The Capilla Villaviciosa, completed in 1371. See the Mudéjar stucco/inspiration anywhere?



Don't get me wrong, the cathedral component doesn't look bad on its own per se, just extremely out of place in its archeitectural style, with the exception of the components which have large Arab influence (ex. the Capilla Villaviciosa above). Still, the baroque choir stalls desgined by Andalucían sculptor Pedro Duque Cornejo in the mid-1700's are certainly beautiful with the ornate marble, mahogany & jasper.



And OF COURSE I have to end this post by including a photo of me chillin' in the Grand Mezquita/Cathedral like its 965 A.D. And by that I mean being really amazed by it all.