Cordoba

Córdoba was, in the 10th century, the largest city in Western Europe and the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba — a centre of Islamic scholarship, philosophy, medicine and architecture at a time when most of Europe was in the early medieval period. The caliph Abd al-Rahman III and his successors built a city of half a million people, a palace complex at Medina Azahara outside the walls, and a mosque that would become the second largest in the world after Mecca. The Christian Reconquista took Córdoba in 1236. Most of what the Caliphate built was dismantled or repurposed — with one extraordinary exception.

The Mezquita-Catedral is that exception. The mosque was begun in 784 by Abd al-Rahman I on the site of a Visigothic church, expanded by three successive rulers over two centuries into a vast hypostyle hall of 856 columns supporting a double-tiered arcade of alternating red and white voussoirs, and then converted to a cathedral after 1236 without the Islamic structure being demolished. A Renaissance nave was inserted through the centre of the mosque in the 16th century — an act that the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V later regretted when he saw it, reportedly saying that the builders had destroyed something unique to create something ordinary. The exterior, the Roman Bridge and the Torre de Calahorra on the south bank of the Guadalquivir are the standard approaches.

The old Jewish quarter — the Judenía — sits immediately west of the Mezquita, a labyrinth of whitewashed lanes and flower-filled patios that earned the city its UNESCO designation in 1984. The Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos to the south was built after the Reconquista and served as a royal residence and Inquisition headquarters. Córdoba is typically visited as a half-day stop between Seville and Granada, which is enough time to cover the Mezquita exterior, the Roman Bridge and the Judenía. The city is extremely hot in summer — July and August regularly reach 40°C — and is best visited in spring or autumn. Halal dining options are available near the Mezquita and in the old city centre.