Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba Information and history

According to Muslim sources, before leaving the city the Christians plundered the mosque, carrying off its chandeliers, the gold and silver finial of the minaret, and parts of the rich minbar. The archbishop of Toledo, Raymond de Sauvetât, accompanied by the king, led a mass inside the mosque to "consecrate" the building. Under Almoravid rule, the artisan workshops of Cordoba were commissioned to design new richly crafted minbars for the most important mosques of Morocco – most famously the Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque commissioned in 1137 – which were likely inspired by the model of al-Hakam II's minbar in the Great Mosque. The rectangular area within this, in front of the mihrab, was covered by three more decorative ribbed domes. At the beginning of al-Hakam's extension, the central "nave" of the mosque was highlighted with an elaborate ribbed dome (now part of the Capilla da Villaviciosa).

The Capilla Mayor and cruciform cathedral core

A unique building with a history spanning eight centuries. The deep emotional responses that the mosque evoked in him found expression in his poem called "The Mosque of Cordoba". Al-Idrisi, writing in the Almohad era, devoted almost his entire entry on Córdoba, several pages in all, to describing the great mosque, giving almost forensic detail about its constituent parts. The diocese never presented a formal title of ownership nor did provide a judicial sentence sanctioning the usurpation on the basis of a long-lasting occupation, with the sole legal argument being that of the building's "consecration" after 1236, as a cross-shaped symbol of ash was reportedly drawn on the floor at the time. The building was formally registered for the first time by the Córdoba's Cathedral Cabildo in 2006 on the basis of the article 206 of the Ley Hipotecaria from 1946 (whose constitutionality has been questioned).

Architectural influence

The new tower had imperfections, however, and required repairs only a few decades later in the mid-17th century. The construction resumed under architect Juan Sequero de Matilla in 1616 and the tower was finished in 1617. Construction began in 1593 but eventually stalled due to resources being spent instead on the construction of the new cathedral nave and transept happening at the same time. The altarpiece was designed in a Mannerist style by Alonso Matías and construction began in 1618.

• The cathedral’s main chapel (known from Spanish as the Capilla Mayor) is located at the cruciform nave and transept at the center of the building.
• According to Muslim sources, before leaving the city the Christians plundered the mosque, carrying off its chandeliers, the gold and silver finial of the minaret, and parts of the rich minbar.
• An inscription is also included in the mosaics of the middle dome of the maqsura, in front of the mihrab.
• In 1589 a strong storm (or earthquake) caused damage to the former minaret, which was being used as a bell tower, and it was decided to remodel and reinforce the tower.
• The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I’s initial arrival in al-Andalus.
• The ground plan of the completed building forms a vast rectangle measuring 590 by 425 feet (180 by 130 metres), or little less than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

PATIO OF THE ORANGE TREES

The city has built many monuments to San Rafael, but the most… The courtyard of the Orange Trees leads to the complex. The mihrab is one of the most important in the Muslim world, being the most noble piece of the Mosque-Cathedral. The mosque underwent consecutive extensions over later centuries. It is a mixture of architectural styles superimposed on one another over the nine centuries its construction and renovations lasted.

• Due to its status as a former mosque, it is also known as the Mezquita (Spanish for ‘mosque’) and in a historical sense as the Great Mosque of Córdoba.
• The minaret has since disappeared after it was partly demolished and encased in the Renaissance bell tower that is visible today.
• The new tower had imperfections, however, and required repairs only a few decades later in the mid-17th century.
• The first precisely dated chapel known to be built along the west wall is the Chapel of San Felipe and Santiago, in 1258.
• The courtyard is known today as the Patio de los Naranjos or “Courtyard of the Orange Trees”.
• The mosque’s architectural system of repeating two-tiered arches, with otherwise little surface decoration, is considered one of its most innovative characteristics and has been the subject of much commentary.

Choir stalls

By leaving the mosque to coexist with the cathedral, the building is a physical repository of power struggles in Spain.page needed Additionally, it is a showcase of architectural hybridity, representing ideological intersections between Christianity and Islam.page needed Abd al-Rahman III added the mosque's first minaret (tower used by the muezzin for the call to prayer) in the mid-10th century. This maqsura area covers three bays along the southern qibla wall in front of the mihrab, and was marked off from the rest of the mosque by an elaborate screen of intersecting horseshoe and polylobed arches; a feature which would go on to be highly influential in the subsequent development of Moorish architecture. At the south end of the prayer hall is a richly decorated mihrab (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) surrounded by an architecturally defined maqsura (an area reserved for the emir or caliph during prayer), which date from the expansion of Caliph Al-Hakam II after 965. The mosque-cathedral's hypostyle hall dates from the original mosque construction and originally served as its main prayer space for Muslims. The minaret of the mosque was also converted directly into a bell tower for the cathedral, with only cosmetic alterations such as the placement of a cross at its summit.
Early alterations to the building were limited, with the cathedral’s first altar being installed below one of the skylights that was added to the building as part of Hakam II’s extension. Under Abd Al-Rahman II, eight new naves were added to the south side of the hall, with new Moorish-made columns being erected next to the already existing Roman and Visigoth ones. Cordoba’s growing population meant that an extension of the prayer hall became necessary. The need to call the faithful to prayer led to the construction of a minaret by Hisham I, who came to power upon the death of his father, Abd Al-Rahman I, in 788. This is the wall in a mosque which faces towards Mecca, although in this case, for reasons unknown, it actually faces south, rather than towards the holy city which is located to the south-east of Córdoba. The area inside is made up of a forest of columns with a harmonious colour scheme of red and white arches.
An inscription is also included in the mosaics of the middle dome of the maqsura, in front of the mihrab. More inscriptions are carved into the stone imposts on either side of the mihrab niche's arch, above the small engaged columns. The three bays of the maqsura area (the space in front of the mihrab and the spaces in front of the two side doors) are each covered by ornate ribbed domes. The lower walls on either side of the mihrab are panelled with marble carved with intricate arabesque vegetal motifs, while the spandrels above the arch are likewise filled with carved arabesques. The mihrab opens in the wall at the middle of this maqsura, while two doors flank it on either side. The dome is now part of the Villaviciosa Chapel and two of the three intersecting arch screens are still present (the western one has disappeared and been replaced by the 15th-century Gothic nave added to the chapel).
Those arches are supported by 856 Roman columns shaped from precious stones such as jasper, onyx, marble, granite and porphyry. The mosque-cathedral of Cordoba (locally known as the Mezquita) is one of the most impressive examples of Muslim architecture in https://www.velwinscasino.gr/ the world. It was built by King Henry II to fulfil the wishes of his father, Alfonso XI of Castile and León, who wanted to be laid to rest in the cathedral where his own father, Fernando IV, was already buried.

These three areas appear to have been the most important focal points of Christian activity in the early cathedral. It is likely that the mosque's minbar was also restored at this time, since it is known to have survived long afterwards up to the 16th century. As a result of both this pillage and the earlier pillage during the fitna, the mosque had lost almost all of its valuable furnishings. Indeed, the collapse of authority had immediate negative consequences for the mosque, which was looted and damaged during the fitna (civil conflict) that followed the caliphate's fall (roughly between 1009 and 1030). After the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba at the beginning of the 11th century, no further expansions to the mosque were carried out.
In the courtyard, there are citrus trees and palms planted in rows mimicking the columns found inside the mosque. The arches are doubled, which at the time was a new building innovation, allowing for higher ceilings to be built. The columns of the mosque support the famous alternating red and white brick arches which are said to be inspired by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The King immediately converted the mosque into a Catholic cathedral, though the actual building was left intact. The hall’s eleven naves were comprised of two-tiered columns, made of jasper, marble and granite, which support the carved wooden-beam ceiling, a design which is known as hypostyle.
Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at the site of the mosque without giving further details. The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I's initial arrival in al-Andalus. The mosque structure is an important monument in the history of Islamic architecture and was highly influential on the subsequent "Moorish" architecture of the western Mediterranean regions of the Muslim world.
This tension between architectural languages remains one of the most debated aspects of the Mosque-Cathedral. Where the mosque emphasizes lateral expansion and spatial fluidity, the nave asserts axial hierarchy and vertical dominance. The cathedral nave, by comparison, disrupts this subdued ambiance, channeling light to highlight Christian iconography, thus shifting the experiential narrative. Narrow clerestory windows filter sunlight through layered arches, producing a dim, almost mystical interior. Perhaps the most contentious intervention came in the 16th century when Charles V authorized the construction of a cruciform nave at the heart of the hypostyle hall. While its structural framework remained largely intact, successive modifications introduced Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque elements, fundamentally altering the building’s original spatial and symbolic intent.
Other chapels were progressively created around the interior periphery of the building over the following centuries, many of them funerary chapels built through private patronage. Notably, during the early period of the cathedral-mosque, the workers charged with maintaining the building (which had suffered from disrepair in previous years) were local Muslims (Mudéjars). The area of the mosque's mihrab and maqsura, along the south wall, was converted into the Chapel of San Pedro and was reportedly where the host was stored. Soon after this date both the middle dome of the maqsura and the wall surfaces around the mihrab were covered in rich Byzantine-influenced gold mosaics. More famously, a rectangular maqsura area around the mosque's new mihrab was distinguished by a set of unique interlacing multifoil arches. According to Susana Calvo Capilla, a specialist on the history of the mosque–cathedral, although remains of multiple church-like buildings have been located on the territory of the mosque–cathedral complex, no clear archaeological evidence has been found of where either the church of St. Vincent or the first mosque were located on the site, and the latter may have been a newly constructed building.

The space under this dome was surrounded on three sides by elaborate screens of interlacing polylobed arches, similar to those of the maqsura to the south but even more intricate. The ribs of this dome have a different configuration than those of the domes in front of the mihrab. The tensions that grow from these subverted expectations create an intellectual dialogue between building and viewer that will characterize the evolving design of the Great Mosque of Cordoba for over two hundred years. It served as a central prayer hall for personal devotion, for the five daily Muslim prayers and the special Friday prayers accompanied by a sermon. The Christian-era additions (after 1236) included many small chapels throughout the building and various relatively cosmetic changes.