Islands of Catholicism

 We are going to the Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba. It is glorious and I don’t think I can do it justice.  I will try.  First, some History.

https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/

According to tradition - the citation needed of the antiquarian world - a Visigoth church occupied this site, In 785 Abd al-Rahman I ordered the building of a mosque. It was expanded several times over the next few centuries.  A minaret was completed in 958. It had a base measuring 8.5 metres and was 47 metres high. A lot happened. If you want details read this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque%E2%80%93Cathedral_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

In 1236 Cordoba fell to Ferdinand III and the Mosque was converted into a cathedral.  According to Jimenez de Rada, the king took the cathedral bells of Santiago, which had been looted by Al-Mansur, back to Santiago.  Here we get what is stunning about the Mosque.  Here we have a first of pillars. The use of this architecture style, which gifted Medieval buildings the grace of space and light was copied across Europe - see Durham Cathedral for footnotes.  Into this light and shade are colonies of intense Catholicism, especially when the Baroque took over and lavished gold leaf on any surface that was nailed down.

The first altar was put into what became known as the capilla de Villaviciosa.  Slowly private patronage added funerary chapels and chapels, such as that of San Felipe and Santiago were added.  The first major addition was the Royal Chapel, which seems to have been built in the 14th century.  A 1589 earthquake did damage to the minaret turned bell tower and it was remodelled and reinforced.  The tower was subject to storm damage in 1727 and by the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.

We will end with the most recent reviews.

21 minutes ago.  Eric  21 minutes’incredible history’

38 minutes ago rafael  ‘More impressive than expected, ‘

2 hours ago.  Marta ‘SPECTACULAR!!! Besides being beautiful, we had a guide who explained everything so well that it felt like we were experiencing it ourselves.

Thank you, Ana. ‘

And so today ends.