What an efficient pair we were, leaping up, packing and marching to the bus station so briskly that we had a twenty minute wait. We blobbed out on the bus, only noting another big bull on the hillside, and it seemed that not so very much time had gone by and we had arrived in Córdoba.
We walked down the beautiful gardens in the middle of the main roads, admiring statues, fountains and a pond with dovecotes on it, where only white pigeons seemed to live. The white dove, representing the holy spirit, appears in many paintings, and we have noticed such a lot of white pigeons that we wondered if they were specially bred. In Córdoba that appeared to be the case.
To reach our hostel, we left the modern world and passed under a gate in the ancient wall and into the old Jewish quarter. Here the streets were narrow and twisting, and the shops amounted to a doorway and a bit more in width, and a tiny window for display. It is always a relief when the directions to a hostel match the actual path there, so we were pleased that this was the case and we were greeted by a very friendly lady.
We virtually just dumped our bags and raced off to take advantage of the remaining pre-siesta time to visit some sites. It was raining, but we had our umbrellas and in the narrow streets, we were sheltered from the wind.
The Castle of the Christian Monarchs was a palace and then a fort, and a headquarters for the inquisition from 1490 to 1821. The view from the street is of a storybook fortress castle, not one for looks but for business, softened by palm trees planted in front.
Inside, there is a display of Roman statuary and of Roman mosaics.
A man sat reading in the 17th Century baroque chapel, right in front of a particularly fine large mosaic. No doubt he now features in at least twenty people's photos of the mosaic, an anonymous figure lifted to lounge room celebrity status.
Keith thought he was most inconsiderate but I thought he would have been unaware of his impact. We climbed up into the empty towers, and also walked below in the cloisters. We saw a relief sculpture which said that Isabel, the Queen of Spain, had extended her care and protection to the Queen of the Canaries while she was at the Castle, and during the birth of her daughter, and that when the Christian Conquest of the Canaries was finished, she returned to her land. It is the only time we have seen anyone depicting the people who were conquered, other than in battle scenes with the Moors and sometimes of Ferdinand with his foot on a Moor's head.
It did not take all that long to look over the castle and the ancient baths area. The view from the towers had told us that the gardens were extensive and beautiful and an open gate from the courtyard was beckoning. We stepped out onto a terrace with two large ponds full of carp, then steps down to further ponds. The water flowed down everywhere, in little channels beside paths, from fountains, through ponds, and even through little irrigation channels in the garden beds. It was certainly a formal layout with cypress, topiaried and natural orange trees, low hedges, roses and other low shrubs and perennials all making rooms and walls between the walkways. In the middle was a huge statue of Columbus presenting his plans for his explorations to the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand. The rain could not take away our pleasure at being in this garden, but it certainly made for a shorter stay than I would have liked.
We had time to step into the old synagogue, close to our hostel and the city walls. It was built in 1315, and then became a Christian Hermitage after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. The shoemakers guild took it over in the 16th Century. In the 19th Century the place had new panelling put in over the intricate plaster work, and it was only when some of this fell down, that the former beauty was discovered. It has now been restored as much as possible, given the ravages of time. It was small, but beautifully decorated, with each wall having Hebrew inscriptions on it as well. The gallery that separates women from the men was still there, and seemed full of ghosts in the quiet of the afternoon.
We were exhausted really, and so a sleep was essential. When we woke up we visited the Mezquita, which was once a mosque that was taken over by the Christians, who altered it to suit their needs and to ensure that it was clearly Christian. There is a courtyard; the courtyard of orange trees and fountains which would have been the original Muslim ablutions area. Huge beams with carvings and inscriptions on them are displayed around the galleries. Inside we were in a forest of red and white painted arches, with chapels to saints interposed all along the sides.
The Mezquita was built by Emir Abd ar-Rahman in 785, and he built where a Visigoth church had been partitioned between Muslims and Christians. We saw some pillars that certainly looked like the Visigoths had been at work. The mosque was added to over the years until it had a 14,000 square metre (3.5 acre) prayer hall and 1293 columns. In the 16th Century, a cathedral was built right in the middle, and it is glorious but looks as if it was plonked there rather than that it belongs.
It blocks the view of so many columns, and of the golden mosaic work and decorations that surround the Mihrab door.
We well remembered our visit here with our friends Alan and Mark thirty years ago, and the vision of all those red and white arches is still an aesthetically pleasing and exciting one. We looked carefully at all the paintings and chapels this time, because we don't remember them in the same way. Maybe it is because they are purposeful and in many cases beautiful, but they don't seem to be part of the essence of the Mezquita, which remains in its origins as a mosque.
Dusk was falling as we left, so our view of the exterior was hampered somewhat. There were sections which clearly had been left with their Muslim designs, and other parts where an attempt to 'churchify' the place had been made.
On a further side little balconies with paintings in them had been created. Obviously everyone had had a go at it, and luckily no-one had completely removed the others' work, so it was a remarkable document of change written in stone.
We walked around for a while, but it was dark and cold so we went home for tea and a read. Our own hostel is built around a delightful tiny courtyard, and it is a real pleasure to walk past it and enjoy its tiles and plants.
We had another wakeful night with receiving a response from my school and writing for more advice and information.
The Mezquita is now called a Cathedral and the guards even insist on males not wearing hats or beanies inside. Most views of the inside show a blending of the Muslim and Christian elements.
One of the many Christian treasures on display in the Mezquita
The bell tower, like many in southern Spain, is an addition to the minaret of the mosque.
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