Where mosques and cathedrals merge

Trip Start Apr 08, 2007
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Trip End Oct 01, 2007


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Friday, May 4, 2007

Up and at 'em early again this morning, we hopped a train out of Sevilla Santa Justa bound for Córdoba station. Just as in Sevilla, the suburbs are hideously bland and modern, but after about 15 to 20 minutes walk, we got into the picturesque historic center. Unlike Sevilla's colorful old barrios, Córdoba's Judería is a labyrinthine district of whitewashed buildings and cobbled streets. Equally beautiful in its own way though, it's a charming place to lose oneself in. Eventually we stumbled upon the Mezquita (mosque-cum-cathedral) and Alcazár, which sit in a much wider set of plazas near the river.

We passed most of this morning wandering around the Alcazár and its extensive gardens. The castle itself is not especially impressive, and the views out top weren't all that inspiring in the grey weather we encountered from arrival. The grounds though, are quite amazing, decorated in the style of a Persian garden, with row upon row of landscaped flower beds and trickling water. Just walking through them took us a good couple of hours. We were also treated to the arrival of a wedding party, with the bride and groom posing throughout with their hired photographer.

Easily the most amazing sight of the city is the Mezquita, however. Expecting a repeat of Sevilla and Toledo's predominantly Gothic design, I was startling to find how much of the original mosque has been retained in the structure. In fact, it's basically an incredibly ornate Muslim house of worship that's had a cathedral and a number of minor chapels plunked down in the middle of it. The combination of the two religious elements are utterly fascinating to see, and spending an hour or two looking through it was easily among the highlights of our visit to Spain - possibly the highlight, in my opinion.

We spent the rest of the afternoon meandering around the old Jewish district and around, stopping in the former synagogue - one of only three remaining in the country. We also got to visit a number of flower-decorated courtyards, our visit nicely coinciding with an annual festival of interior courtyards. Other than that though, it proved to be quite appropriate that we did Córdoba as a daytrip. I had envisioned us needing a good couple days here, but in fact we probably would have run out of things to see and do. Not being able to find a room turned out to be quite fortuitous in that regard, I guess.

Tomorrow we make for France via a long trek across Spain and a night train to Paris. It ain't gonna be a whole lot of fun, frankly, but we don't have much choice in that regard. Ah well . . . it's only one day.
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