April 16, 2010 -- Cordoba and La Mesquita

This was our only full day in Cordoba and the highlight was our tour of the Mesquita, the 10th century Cordoba Mosque, as large as those in Damascus and Baghdad. It could accommodate 20,000 worshippers and apparently the acoustics allowed an imam (prayer leader) to be heard exhorting the faithful throughout the building. Its footprint is 600 X 400 feet and the roof is supported by 850 columns with yellow and red striped double arches, a round Romanesque arch above a Visagothic horseshoe shaped arch. The aisles go on and on from both the square and diagonal perspectives.

The Mesquite was built on the site of a Visigothic Christian church and a piece of the Mosque floor has been excavated to show a portion of the former church, apparently to make the point that Christians are the true owners. After the Catholic Monarchs reconquered Cordoba, they proceeded to construct a large Gothic Cathedral and Choir room in the middle of the Mesquita although it required only a small percentage of the floorspace. The Gothic arches ascend much higher than the Mesquita ceiling and are incorporated quite nicely into the Mesquita architecture, although many say that the church ruined the Mesquita. To the victor go the spoils.

Codoba was the cultural and intellectual capital of Europe in the 10th Century, with 100,00 inhabitants, hundreds of mosques, 70 libraries, numerous palaces and public baths, paved streets, oil lamps for street lighting, and running water. Too bad those Catholic Monarchs had their way after 1236.

After our tour we had lunch, returned to our room for a siesta, walked across the Roman Bridge and explored the other side of the river, and then wandered up to the Plaza Neuva for dinner, a menu of the day.

We had planned to go to a classical music concert but it began raining quite heavily so, instead of wandering the streets waiting for the 10 p.m. concert, we walked home and went to bed early.