Mezquita

Founded in 785, Córdoba’s gigantic mosque is an architectural hybrid that has experienced two big ‘modern’ changes: a 16th-century cathedral plonked right in the middle; and the closing of 19 once-important doorways, which would have filled the original Mezquita with light.

The main entrance is the Puerta del Perdón, a 14th-century Mudéjar gateway on Calle Cardenal Herrero, with the ticket office immediately inside. Beside the Puerta del Perdón is a 16th- and 17th- century tower built around the remains of the Mezquita’s minaret. Inside the gateway is the aptly named Patio de los Naranjos (Courtyard of the Orange Trees), originally the mosque’s ablutions courtyard, from which a door leads inside the prayer hall itself.

From this door you can see straight ahead to the mihrab, the prayer niche in a mosque’s kiblah (the wall indicating the direction of Mecca) that is the focus of prayer. The first 12 transverse aisles inside the entrance, a forest of pillars and arches, comprise the original 8th-century mosque. The columns support two tiers of arches, necessary to give the building sufficient height and maintain its sense of openness.

In the centre of the building is the Christian cathedral. Just past the cathedral’s western end, the approach to the mihrab begins, marked by heavier, more-elaborate arches. Immediately in front of the mihrab is the maksura, the royal prayer enclosure (today enclosed by railings) with its intricately interwoven arches and lavishly decorated domes created by Caliph Al-Hakam II in the 960s. The decoration of the mihrab portal incorporates 1600kg of gold mosaic cubes, a gift from the Christian emperor of Byzantium, Nicephoras II Phocas. The mosaics give this part of the Mezquita the aura of a Byzantine church.

After the Christians captured Córdoba, the Mezquita was used as a church. In the 16th century the centre of the building was torn out to allow construction of a cathedral comprising the Capilla Mayor, now adorned with a rich 17th-century jasper and marble retablo, and the coro (choir), with fine 18th-century carved mahogany stalls.