Today I went with a group from CC-CS to Córdoba, a city about an hour and half by bus northeast of Sevilla. I really liked this city a lot. It was full of charming little winding streets between whitewashed buildings with yellow painted trim around balconies and doorways. I think wandering through the streets of Córdoba was my favorite part of the trip. Apparently in the first week of May there is a festival in Córdoba in which all the families open up their private patios and decorate them with flowers and have dancing and music and food, and there competitions for who has the prettiest patio.
The first thing we visited was the mezquita (the mosque). Although I think it is more properly referred to as la mezquita-catedral, because after the reconquista of Córdoba it was transformed into a cathedral, and Catholic masses are held there to this day. In fact, a cathedral was constructed inside the mezquita, complete with ornate mahogany carvings of saints and giant organs. It seems a little odd, and I wonder why it was so important to construct all of this, instead of just using the available space, but whatever. The mezquita is huge, and extremely beautiful. It has un patio de naranjos, just like La Catedral here in Sevilla, where the Muslims would wash before going in to worship. There is also a large tower in this mezquita, because all mosques have a tower called a minaret. However, in this mezquita, the Christian conqueres built a larger bell tower around the original minaret. The original minaret still exists, but it is completely encased in the new bell tower.
The main hall of worship is this vast open space filled with row upon row of columns of marble, jasper, or granite. On top of the columns are two layers of red and white arches to support the roof. The arches were not made red and white on purpose. They have alternating stripes of brick and limestone, because it’s more structurally sound, but it looks quite pretty, as if it had been made on purpose. None of the columns match, nor do the ornate stones at the tops of the columns (a word which I cannot recall), because they were recycled from previous buildings, as it was much cheaper to harvest these pre-made pieces than to import and carve all the necessary stone. Such lack of symmetry certainly would not appeal to a Neoclassicist sensibility, but I kind of liked it.
As I said, a cathedral was constructed inside the original mezquita. It’s realy interesting to compare the Muslim and the Christian decorations. Muslims believe that only Allah can create life, and as such, they do not use any representations of animals or people in their artwork. Most of their designs, then, involve geometric patterns or Arabic script. Upon entering the Cathedral, though, there are images of saints and Biblical figures everywhere. As my guide in the Cathedral explained, most of the Christian population of this time was illiterate, so the architects of the cathedrals used images to convey Biblical stories.
After the mezquita, we walked through the streets and through the judería, or the old Jewish barrio. According to our guide, there is no longer a Jewish community in Córdoba, as they were all kicked out during the Inquisition. There are still Jewish communities in some of the bigger cities of Spain, like Sevilla, Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona, etc., but not in Córdoba. We also visited the old synagogue, which is no longer a functioning synagogue, only a tribute to the historical legacy of the Jews in the city. There are only three of these old synagogues left in Spain—this one in Córdoba and two in Toledo. Much of the decoration in the synagogue is in the mudejar style, a mixture of Muslim and Christian designs, that was popular in the period after the Reconquista. Many of the artisans were Muslims, and many of the Christians who commissioned buildings liked the geometric designs of the Muslims. However, it is clear that the synagogue actually was a Jewish synagogue because along with the mudejar geometric designs, there were also Hebrew letters.
We went next to the Alcázar, or the palace. Unfortunately, my camera battery died just as we were entering, so I have no pictures to show you. But the gardens of the Alcázar were gorgeous, with fountains and groves of orange trees and statues of grim looking kings that, in my nerdiness, reminded me of the Argonath in The Lord of the Rings (if you don’t know what the Argonath are, I will let you look it up and refrain from explaining). There were also some plants with little peppers growing on them, that looked kind of like those little red peppers you will see in Chinese cooking. I really wanted to try one and see if they were hot, but I thought stealing peppers from the garden of the king might be a poor idea.
We had some free time then to wander through the streets at our leisure. I didn’t do any shopping (except for some chocolate ice cream), because I needed to watch my budget, but I just loved all the charming little streets and patios. We were sometimes able to see into people’s private patios, but I felt odd taking pictures of people’s homes. However, when I got back, Carmen mentioned something about the festival and how we (she, Alicia, and I) should go see it, so potentially I might be going back to Córdoba in May, then photographing private homes will not only be accepted, but encouraged.
I suppose that’s all for now. Alicia and I did a little shopping when I got back from Córdoba, but I won’t bore you too much with those details. Apparently one of the items on our itinerary in Morocco is to go toe club in our hotel in Tangiers, and having never been to a club ever, I don’t have anything club-worthy to wear, so I wanted to find something for that. I will let you know how the club goes . . . I have a feeling I won’t be staying too long.
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