Córdoba
When I was a sophomore in high school, I took an AP Art History class that changed my life. I didn't end up majoring in art or art history in college like I thought I would. Nor did I become a curator like I had dreamt of becoming when I was 15. But I did gain an appreciation for and an insatiable desire to see what I had studied in real life. This is why I became obsessed with Istanbul and teared up when I finally visited Hagia Sophia. And this is also why I couldn't visit southern Spain without stopping by Córdoba, a quaint little town conveniently located between Sevilla and Granada. Córdoba has the famous La Mezquita, one of the most stunning sights I've ever seen.
Stay
I stayed at an adorable bed & breakfast in Barrio Santa Marina, a neighborhood of winding cobblestone roads, low white-washed buildings, and lots of friendly neighborhood dogs. My charming host María José brought homemade breakfasts of pan con tomate y jamón, fresh coffee, and orange juice, and Spanish biscuits up to the rooftop in the morning.
In the evening, I had dinner and drank tinto on an intimate square overlooking the neighborhood basilica.
Do
Obviously, the highlight of my time was visiting La Mezquita. This former 10th-century mosque was once the center of Western Islam and rivaled Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).
It contains over 800 arches which, despite appearances, aren't painted red and white but are actually alternating red brick and white stone. The columns are topped with double arches—a round Romanesque arch above a Visigothic horseshoe arch. These arches were recycled from ancient Roman ruins and conquered Visigothic churches. They seem to recede into infinity.
Ferdinand III conquered the city in 1236 and turned the mosque into a Gothic church, but 70% of the original mosque structure survives to this day. A giant 16th-century cathedral now sits awkwardly in the middle of the mosque. While the mosque is about 30 feet high, the cathedral’s space soars 130 feet up. Its glorious ceiling will make you forget you were in a former mosque just seconds ago.
Though it would have been quicker and less expensive for Christian builders to destroy the mosque entirely when they wanted to build a cathedral in the center of Córdoba, the Christians respected La Mezquita’s beauty enough and built their cathedral into it instead. The differences between Catholic and Islamic aesthetics and psychology are glaring in here: horizontal vs. vertical, intimate vs. intimidating, dark vs. bright, simple vs. elaborate.
Tips
Tips
Order a “fino fresquito” for a chilled white wine from the nearby Montilla-Moriles region.
Buses are convenient to catch from the station into town. You can purchase a €1.30 ticket onboard.
No need to make advanced reservations to La Mezquita. Just purchase a €10 ticket from the ticket booths inside the courtyard the day of.
If you only have a limited time in Córdoba, arrive in the late afternoon and go straight to La Mezquita, which doesn't close until 7pm in the summer, then enjoy the rest of the city at night before leaving the next morning. Córdoba was the hottest city I visited in Spain, so the evening was a much more pleasant time to appreciate other sights and take a paseo with the locals while all the daytrippers have left.