Part 59: La Mezquita and the Iron Maiden Dec 29-30, 2012

I arrived at the Cordoba train station and caught bus #4 to my hostel.  That night, I walked over to the mall to buy groceries at Eroski, a large supermarket.  I caught my first glimpses of the Mezquita on my walk, but, the only thing I explored that night was the internet.  I was tired and decided to start my adventures the next morning. 

Cordoba started out as a roman colony in 169 BC, however, they have found Neanderthal remains from 32,000 BC, so let’s just agree that it has been inhabited for a very long time.   The Visigoths (Germanic tribes) conquered the city in the 6^th century, but their rule didn’t last very long.  Muslims captured Cordoba and it became a provincial capital (or Caliphate) of the independent Arab Muslim emirate of al-Andalus in 766.  During this period of time, the city was quite large and became very advanced and culturally important.  It had many mosques, baths, palaces, and the world’s largest library (according to Wikipedia).   This was a ‘golden age.’  Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived and worked together (and got along) for several hundred years.  It started going south though and in June of 1236 Cordoba was captured by King Ferdinand III of Castile, during the Spanish Reconquista.   Bring on the Inquisition!

I decided to start my Cordoba experience by visiting the reason everyone goes there anyway:  The Mezquita.  According to the completely nonbiased information pamphlet from the Mother Church of the Diocese cathedral Chapter, the site of the Mezquita started out as the location of the San Vicente Basilica in the 6^th century.   After the “The Islamic Intervention,” the cathedral was destroyed and construction on the mosque began in 785.  The mosque was started by Abd-ar-Rahman I.  He was inspired by the Mosque of Damascus and wanted the mosque to have a traditional courtyard and prayer hall.  However, there were also Spanish and Roman influences in the way the arches were constructed.  The stripes actually come from alternating brick and stone materials.  Over the next 200 hundred years many people expanded the mosque until it was so grand, it passed Damascus as the reference model. 

According to the pamphlet, “The Christian Transformation” began in 1236, after King Ferdinand III conquered Cordoba.   The construction of the cathedral began in 1523.  Basically, they plunked a traditional cathedral down in the middle of the mosque.  The cathedral has the traditional cross shape and is made in the gothic, renaissance and baroque styles.  Around the edges, they did a good job blending the styles of the mosque’s arches and the cathedral’s white and gold carvings, but ultimately, it looks like they plunked a cathedral in the middle.  The church is nice, but doesn’t really stand out from the hundreds of others I’ve poked my head into around Europe.  The arches of the original mosque are what make the building truly unique.   I’m really glad they recognized the artistic value of the structure and didn’t just tear it down and start over. 

I spent probably 3 hours walking around and marveling at the sheer number of columns (856 of them) and red and white arches.  There are also catholic chapels around the edges, mosaics on the walls, and beautiful carvings.  They also put in a small museum that shows some of the restoration work and history of the carvings and a cathedral treasury museum, which shows off a lot of shiny religious things. 

From the Mezquita, I headed across the Roman bridge (1^st century BC) to the Calahorra Tower (12^th centrury), which was built to protect the bridge.   It currently houses a museum about the history of Andalucía.  It was an audio museum where you wear headphones that work on radio waves so you get a new description of history when you walk into a new room.  It was interesting. 

From there I walked down the river past some of the old flour mills (which are over 1,000 years old) to visit the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, which I will call the “castle” from now on.  This castle was one of the primary residences of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and was the seat of the Spanish Inquisition.  It was the site of a medieval fortress and in 1328, Alfonso XI of Castile began building the present day castle.  Isabella and Ferdinand held one of the first permanent tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition here and converted a lot of the castle into torture and interrogation chambers.  The Inquisition maintained a tribunal here for three centuries.  It was opened to tourists in the 1950’s and the best part about it is its amazing gardens. 

I then wandered through the old town, through a plaza and past Roman temple columns before stopping for lunch.  The restaurant did a tapas style lunch, so I got 2 dishes and chocolate cake for dessert.  Mmmmm, cake. 

From there, I followed the suggested walking tour on the map through the old town.  Cordoba has the 2^nd largest medieval old town in Europe, and it is a great place to walk around.  After my exhausting day, I headed back to the hostel for dinner, read my book, and went to sleep. 

The next day, I first wandered into a courtyard to look as some pottery I’d seen a sign for.  I also found the location of Cordoba’s living nativity, which included live donkeys, sheep, chickens, and a turkey.  The lambs were so cute and let me scratch their ears.  I was on the fence about the pottery, so I moved on. 

I was on my way to the Cordoba Synagogue.  It was built in 1315 and has a small courtyard, a small hallway, and a prayer room.  There are several decoratively carved arches with verses written in Hebrew surrounding them.  Given that the Jewish quarter seemed so large on the map, I was surprised by how small the synagogue was.  The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and the building was used as a hospital, a shoemaker’s shop, and a school.  It was declared a national monument in 1885 and has been restored several times since. 

On the same street as the synagogue was Casa Andalusi, a house museum designed to look as it did during the 1100’s.  It also had an interesting exhibit on Moorish paper making techniques.  The house itself was built into the city wall and even had a Visigoth mosaic floor in the basement. 

I explored some more of the town and ultimately stumbled onto the “Inquisition Gallery.”  This museum was a fantastically disturbing collection of torture devices used during the Inquisition.   There were stocks, metal cradles to restrict movement, thumb screws, pears of anguish, an iron maiden,  a Judas Cradle (this one will really make you cringe), the rack, a chair with rotating saw blades in the back, a chair covered in spikes, the saw (shudder) which was used to cut you in half starting between your legs.  Pictures aren’t allowed, but apparently  this guy ignored that.  There was also a nice selection of chastity belts on display.  Basically, you go around every corner and your horrific feelings are renewed.   

Finally, I walked around a bit more and then decided to go back to the living nativity location and buy one of the pots I’d been looking at by Spanish artist Alfareria Tito.  It is beautiful and it is green. 

I then went back to my hostel, where Kevan, the owner had fixed my broken suitcase handle (thank you!), ate some lunch and then headed off to catch my train to Granada.