Mezquita in Cordoba

Monday, June 5, 2017--Cordoba, Spain

We were up early to see the Mezquita (the former mosque which now has an entire Cathedral built inside its walls) before the arrival of the crowds for the day.  We had set the alarm to be up at 7:30, but I had some trouble sleeping and never got back to sleep after awakening around 5:30.  I read in my current book from about 6:00 and finally started my shower around 7:15.

The Mezquita WAS a beautiful building.  Parts of it still are.  But almost all aspects of it have been altered to turn the entire building into a Christian one.  That surprised me a bit.  I had read how the city of Cordoba fought the government to avoid the building being altered and that the government had finally decreed that a huge church be built inside the center of the building (photo here where the outline of the church sticking up out of the building can be see and photos here where the church exists within the building.  But so much more has been done.  Light fixtures have been installed with crosses on them in beyond the interior of the church.  Small Christian chapels have been built out from the side walls all around the interior of the Mezquita.  Essentially what remains to show what a great mosque this was is the size of the interior (possibly only because to build a cathedral big enough to encompass the whole building would have been too expensive and large an undertaking), the many supporting columns and arches in Moorish design, some woodwork design in ceilings and wall panels, and some Arabic writing and Moorish designs in stone.  Why is it necessary for religions to try to wipe out the beautiful architecture of others by forcefully changing their buildings to the religion of the conquerors?  Today we decry the Taliban destroying old Roman or pagan temples that have stood for centuries, but we westerners tend to glorify the building of a church that greatly alters the interior of a wonderful centuries-old mosque.  I walked through this building resenting the imposition of Christianity throughout and wishing I could have seen it in its original glory.  It was one of the four greatest centers of Islam in the world in one of the largest cities of the world at one time. While there, an organist came to practice, and it was nice to hear his music.  That was the only positive Christian experience I can say that I took away from the visit this morning.

After leaving there, we had a list of other sights to see before closing times this afternoon.  Along the way, we also discovered other places we appreciated.  We went to the Calle y Plaza de las Flores (a narrow street and small plaza with flower pots hanging on the walls and with a nice lined-up view back to the former minaret/now church tower of the Mezquita), the Casa Arabe (a group of several old homes/patios with Arabic cultural exhibits--paintings, music, etc.), the Casa Ramon Garcia (a wonderful small house built around a courtyard that houses exhibits and items for sale of  leather work in the styles of guadamecies and cordobanes--the former where the leather is tooled and completely covered in silver and other shiny decorative details and the latter where the leather is only tooled and may have portions of it dyed), the beautiful multi-courtyard area with a well and flowers everywhere including on the walls of a small home at #4 Calle Trueque, and the very interesting Iglesia Parroquial de San Lorenzo.

On our way back to the hotel we shared a delicious ham and cheese empanada that had a really good flaky crust and a pastry made from the same crust with a filling of sweet cream and slices of dried apple and glazed which is one of the local Cordoba specialties.  We returned through the  Plaza del Potro just to see it again after reading that in one of the adventures of Don Quixote, he had lived at that square.
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After tea and then happy hour at our room, we went out just to wander for a final time in Cordoba.  We went up directions we had not gone since the first day here.  Eventually, we ended up at the main square in the shopping district where we found an empty bench and sat watching people, listening to a man playing an accordion, and just visiting with each other. 

There is a concert tonight we would have liked to have heard--part of the International Sephardic Music Festival that starts tonight.  The performers tonight are Jasmina Petrovic and Klezmer Muzikanten.  I may have heard them before at the Accordion Festival in San Antonio.  But there concert tonight doesn't begin until 22:30, and we have to be up and traveling tomorrow morning to our next destination.