There’s no way I can keep posting about Córdoba, Spain, and not talk about the Mezquita-Catedral. The site has a very long and complicated history, so I’m going to link to Wikipedia for those who want to know more. I’ll just give a “CliffsNotes” version here.
There may have been a Roman temple on this site, there may have been a Visigoth church. That’s all debatable, but the construction of the Great Mosque began around 785 with several expansions over the following centuries. The last major expansion in 987 made the mosque the largest in the Muslim world outside of Abbasid Iraq (That’s according to wiki. I’m not even sure about how to go about verifying that).
In 1236 Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile and the mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral. In the 16th century a Renaissance cathedral nave and transept was constructed within the center of the mosque and the minaret was renovated as a bell tower.
Renovations continued, and the result that you see today is a massive historic mosque filled with columns and striped arches with, in its center, a somewhat traditional cathedral inserted. It’s quite a sight. I’ll start with some images of the original mosque structure.
The once-minaret-now-belltower in the Court of Oranges.
At the time of my visit, floats were being stored for upcoming processions providing even more contrast between the Muslim and Catholic elements.
From here you can see the glowing white light that is coming from the inserted cathedral.
The contrast of the red and white arches to the brilliant white cathedral vault with its much greater height and windows is startling. Both structures are impressive but the effect is quite jarring. There are some transitional elements between the two spaces but once you’re in the cathedral portion it feels like you have entered a different world. I suppose, in a way, you have.
I can’t imagine a trip to Córdoba without a visit to the Mezquita-Catedral. It’s an icon of Andalucia if not all of Spain. It is to Córdoba what the Alhambra is to Granada.
I wish I had some tips for photographing the Mezquita, but I found it challenging. It’s such a large interior space that it’s difficult to get it all into one frame. A wide-angle lens is definitely a good option but I also found some short telephoto shots compressing just the columns and arches to be even more interesting. I’d love to go back and try again. Maybe when all the procession floats aren’t in storage there would be more opportunities for shooting the seemingly unending space. But I’m sure you’ll have other tourists to contend with anytime you are there.
Some things might just be worth experiencing, and not being distracted by trying to capture it all in a photo.
