CORDOBA: THE MOSQUE AND CATHEDRAL

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I almost turned off the alarm this morning and went back to sleep. I'm so glad that I didn't. The mosque and cathedral are well worth an early start. At 8:30am the gates and doors are opened for visitors who do not want a tour. The entry is free and the information I had read said that you were supposed to make your visit in silence.
The exterior wall of the mosque/cathedral is imposing and contains a large number of gates (most kept closed) and square turrets. There is a tower on the north side, called the Puerta del Perdon, where on feast days debtors were released from their obligations. Adjoining this is a small altar to the Virgin of the Lights, as it is illuminated at night. It's altar piece is a painting by the local artist Julia Romero de Torres, renown for his paintings of nudes. I enter through a gate on the eastern side into the Patio de los Naranjos (Courtyard of the Oranges). The courtyard was planted with orange tress during the Christian reconquest. In Moorish times, this was the place where the faithful washed before entering the mosque, while the cloisters surrounding it were the place of prayer for women. Next to the Puerta del Perdon was the first great minaret to be built in Spain. Now a belltower, topped with a statue of Saint Raphael, conceals it.
You may enter chatting but the first impression of the interior takes your breath away! The sheer size of the interior leaves you dumbfounded. It is the largest mosque in the Western World - a total area of 24 000 square metres! The original mosque consisted of 11 longitudinal and 12 transversal aisles, and was constructed using columns, capitals and stone from Roman and Visigoth buildings in Spain, Europe and Africa. There were 1013 columns, of which 856 survived the changes carried out to integrate the various Christian churches. The outside perimeter of the mosque has been made into small chapels, similar to those seen in other cathedrals. Chapels financed by nobility as places for their family to worship and to bury their dead. They varied greatly from one made entirely of red marble to a very simple one containing only a wooden altar piece. In another, a young woman was preparing to continue some restoration work.
After the reconquest of the city by the armies of Ferdinand III in 1236, the bishop performed a consecration ceremony converting the mosque into a cathedral and giving it the name Santa Maria la Mayor. Over the next 5 centuries successive reforms were carried out in the building to adapt it to its Christian function. In 1523 it was proposed to demolish the mosque in order to build a new cathedral. Luckily King Charles V had the vision to oppose this. Consequently a cathedral was built in the centre of the mosque and made up of a transept, pulpits and choir. Someone was playing the organ this morning - its sounds permeating the almost silence of the cathedral.
This is a truly amazing building - it retains the air of the original mosque as the additions harmonise perfectly with the rest of the building. If only these 2 religious groups could harmonise so well today!

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