We woke up early to get on the road to Córdoba, which is about an hour and a half from Seville. Similar to the drive between Malaga and Seville with its olive trees, the drive between Seville and Córdoba was full of orange trees – the groves would stretch out as far as we could see on either side of the road. About half way to Córdoba we spotted an old fortress on the top of a mountain so we made a little detour to check it out. It turned out to be Castillo de Almodóvar – an Arab fortress built around 740 (though it was in ruins by the late 1800’s and was restored by Earl XII Torralva beginning in 1901). Almodóvar was important to the defense of Córdoba due to its strategic location on a hill next to the river Guadalquivir. When we stopped it wasn’t open yet and we needed to get on to Córdoba, but it is supposedly really interesting inside. Here is the link if you want to read more about it: http://castillodealmodovar.com/el-castillo/.
Córdoba is actually a pretty interesting city – it was a Roman city in ancient times and then during the Middle Ages it became the capital of an Islamic Caliphate (kingdom) which covered almost all of current day Spain and part of Northern Africa. In the 10th century Córdoba was the most populous city in the world and it was considered the intellectual center of Europe (it had many libraries, universities and medical schools).
When we got to Córdoba we went to the Great Mosque of Córdoba (in Spanish La Mezquita) first since it was going to require the greatest about of time and we were hoping to beat the bus loads of people that visit it. It was a medieval Islamic mosque from 784 until 1236 when Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile (the Reconquista) and the mosque was converted to a Catholic church. Even with looking at pictures taken by Antje (our German teacher and friend) when she visited; we still weren’t prepared for how expansive (about 250,000 square feet) and impressive the inside is (especially all the red and white voussoirs). The most notable feature is probably the prayer hall with its 856 columns made of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite. These materials were made from pieces of the Roman temple which was on the site previously as well as other Roman buildings that had been destroyed. After the Reconquista a Renaissance cathedral nave was added to the middle of the structure (which we agreed ends up looking kind of funny since the two styles are so different!).
When we finished up in the Mosque we walked around the old Jewish quarter and ate lunch sitting out in the sun (though when we got the bill we found out they charge 20% extra for sitting outside…). Next we walked down to the river, seeing the Albolafia mill, the Roman Bridge, the Tower of Calahorra and the Puerta del Puente. Again, we were so lucky the weather was so nice.. the sky was so blue! When we finished up with our wandering around Córdoba we got back in the car to drive to Granada. After 40 (stressful) minutes of extra driving around Granada in rush hour traffic trying to find the apartment we rented, we finally found it and got checked in. We didn’t do much sight-seeing this night, we just walked towards city center and grabbed dinner before heading back to our place to get to bed early…we had to wake up pretty early the next morning to go to Alhambra!
