Córdova, Spain

13 - 14 March 2017

After dropping Hanna off at the bus station, we headed to Córdova (2 hours / 100 km away).  We checked into our apartment, and went out for dinner and an evening stroll:

Unfinished Triumphal Arch

View of Córdova from Roman Bridge

Roman Bridge (1st century foundation, 16th century arches)

Calahorra Tower

The next morning we woke early.  The Mezquita, Córdova's premier attraction, is free to visit between 8:30 and 9:30 AM.  When we got there it seemed that other poeple had the same information that we did and were waiting for the place to open at 8:30 AM.

Waiting for the free visiting hour.

Once inside you really understand why this place is highlighted as a place to visit in Spain.  The Mezquita was a 10th century Mosque that was converted into a cathedral in 16th century.

Some of the more than 800 columns.

Unlike other mosques that were destroyed and then a cathedral was rebuilt on the same spot, this mosque was left standing and a cathedral was built inside of it.  This picture below is of the first cathedral built inside the mosque in 1236.  Notice the gothic arches add but the original mosque columns are still standing around it:

Cathedral inside mosque

The arches look like they go on forever.

Arches inside Mezquita

The Catholics even left the Mihrab untouched.  This is the equivalent of the high alter:

The Mihrab

Dome above the Mihrab

In 1523 a new cathedral was built right in the center of the Mezquita.  According to the tour book, “Though it would have been quicker and less expensive for the Christian builders to destroy the mosque entirely, they respected its beauty and built their church into it instead.”

Cathedral in the middle of a mosque

Wow.  That place was pretty incredible.  We were pretty much pushed out at 9:30 AM which was OK since we had pretty much seen it all.  We now have the rest of the day to walk around.  Here are some highlights of what we saw during our walk:

Old church across from our apartment

Oh, I should mention that another highlight of Códova is the patios in many of the housing.  The people of Córdova are very proud of their patios and many houses allow the public to come in and view theirs.  Annually they hold a patio competition to determine the best of the best.  Here is one patio that traditionally does very well in the competition:

An example of an amazing Códordova patio

An amazing door

A square in town

We saw a tapas bar that looked interesting, so we stopped in.  We ordered the octopus and the bartender suggested we order the salmorejo, a traditional cold soup made of tomato, olive oli, and bread. It was all pretty good:

Lunch consisting of Salmorejo and Octopus

We continued on with our walk and found these roman ruins in front of the current city hall.  I am a bit suspicious of the authenticity of the columns, but I do believe that ruins were found here and they reconstructed the building.

Roman ruins

What town square is complete without a man on a horse:

Obligatory man on horse statue

We finished the walking tour and decided to go back to the apartment.  It was Monday and most everything in town is closed today, so we took a siesta before going out for dinner   During our siesta I started catching up on this blog and Tim...I don't know what Tim did...surfed the web and watch Spanish TV.

The next morning we did the walking tour of the Jewish Quarter.  Check out this really cool statue celebrating the patios of Córdova:

I love this statue

In the Jewish Quarter we came across this statue of Moses Maimonides.  The Wikipedia article on him call him "a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages."  The tour book said that people rub the statues foot in hopes that Maimonides' genius and wisdom will rub off on them...so, why not give it a shot:

Gaining a little wisdom from Maimonides

This Synagogue was built in 1236.  It may be small, but it has some incredible details in it:

Across from the synagogue was the Casa de Sefarad, a jewish home transformed into a museum telling the history of the Sephardic Jews of Spain.  While walking around the museum I noticed a Purim display that had dreidels in it.  I told the workers who neither were jewish, that I think the dreidels belong with the Hanukkah display.  They both immediately got on Wikipedia to research as we left the museum.

This street is called Calle de los Juldios, Street of the Jews:

Street sign

I'm interested i something here

Cool door

Even though we checked out of the apartment, our Airbnb hosts gave us till 1:00 PM to move our car from the parking garage, so after the walk we quickly returned to the car and returned the key to where we stayed the last 2 nights.  Here it is:

Our home in Córdova

After leaving Córdova we are headed to Toledo for a 2 night stay.  Until then...