Cordoba: Beauty and History in equal parts

I am pleased to write again to share my experiences as a traveler.

This time I am going to tell you about the Spanish city of Cordoba, which is located on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, about an hour and a half from the city of Seville.

Source: Google map capture

In the last two months I have visited this city twice for work reasons, so I have been able to visit the most important places in the city in 3 afternoons and one night.

End of January

My first visit to the city of Córdoba was at the end of January. I arrived in the city when it was already dark, but even so I decided to go for a night walk with my smartphone to investigate which places would be worth visiting the next day after work. The planned walk was simple and I headed straight to the Mosque-Cathedral, which I walked around contemplating its architectural beauty.

As I was finishing my tour around the cathedral, I began to encounter more of the city's special places and what seemed like a short walk of a few minutes turned into an hour-long walk as I discovered Cordoba's Roman bridge with the striking Calahorra Tower at the other end of it.

As it could not be otherwise, once I was next to the Roman bridge, I decided to cross the bridge with the intention of seeing the Calahorra Tower more closely.

And take pictures from near this tower at the other end of the bridge where the mosque-cathedral is located.

Very happy for the beauty of the city, I decided to return to the hotel, but first I decided to have dinner in one of the restaurants located in the Jewish quarter. Specifically, the Churrasco Restaurant, which caught my attention because from the outside you could already see the beauty of the place with a very Andalusian touch.

Even without a reservation, I was served quickly and they provided me with a table in one of the several rooms they have and as you can see, there was even a lemon tree inside the restaurant itself that gave a special aroma to the place.

For dinner, I ordered a couple of typical Andalusian tapas such as Salmorejo Cordobés (a cold soup of tomato, olive oil and crushed bread) and some calamares a la andaluza.

And once I finished dinner I went to the hotel to rest knowing that the next day after work I would have a long afternoon touring Cordoba.

A wonderful afternoon

My second day in Cordoba was really intense, because it would be the only afternoon that I could really be visiting the different places I had seen the day before and I knew that certain places like the mosque-cathedral closed their doors at 17:00h. Therefore, when I left work at 15:00 I went straight to the hotel, took my camera, ate a quick snack and began my cultural visit to the city entering the Jewish quarter through the Almodovar gate.

Almodovar Gate and Jewish quarter

The Almodovar gate is one of the gates that is still preserved from medieval times when the city was completely walled and as you can see much of the wall is still preserved and additionally the environment has been carefully cared for with several ponds and fountains that decorate the environment of the medieval wall.

Once through this gate and once inside the walled area, I walked through its narrow cobblestone streets and took pictures of interesting places that in future visits to the city, I will surely visit as the Sephardic House and the Bullfighting Museum.

Mosque-Catedral

However, I did not stop much this time in the Jewish quarter because I had between my eyebrows to visit the mosque-cathedral of Cordoba for the first time.

To access the mosque-cathedral I went to the entrance that was enabled to enter it, I recite that it is called the door of Santa Catalina.

Through this door one accesses a large courtyard with orange trees and other large trees that give a very special atmosphere to the place. It should be said that access to this courtyard is completely free and in this same place one can pay the entrance fee to access the mosque-cathedral.

After getting my ticket, I entered the temple and obviously the cost of the entrance was worth it to contemplate the multitude of arches and columns of Arab architecture throughout the entire mosque-cathedral.

At the same time, throughout the temple one can delight in multiple exhibitions, such as at the entrance archaeological remains found in excavations carried out in the cathedral, where there are vestiges of the Roman period before the construction of the mosque.

At the same time, it is impressive to see another area of the mosque-cathedral replicas of the signatures found on several of the capitals of the temple and to contemplate the large number of architects who worked on the construction of this mosque-cathedral for several centuries.

Additionally, during the visit one can see how this mosque was combined with Christian architecture after the Christian reconquest of what was called Al-Andalus.

And as it could not be in a modern Christian temple there are several rooms where different religious symbols are exposed, some of them made of gold and silver from the Middle Ages.

And to finish my tour in the mosque-cathedral I went to the central dome where the holy tabernacle and the choir where it is worth looking up and contemplate the beauty of the ceiling.

Roman bridge and Calahorra Tower

After leaving the mosque-cathedral there were still several hours of sunshine. So I decided to go back to the Roman bridge that I had visited the day before and take the opportunity to contemplate details that I had not seen the night before.

The place is beautiful and I decided to go again to the Calahorra Tower to compare the views with the previous night.

Impressive to see the mosque-cathedral from the other end of the bridge.

Additionally, in the vicinity of the Tower of Calahorra a kind of medieval market was being organized for the following days and the atmosphere was really festive. Too bad I had to leave the next day and could not enjoy this party with what I like the medieval atmosphere parties.

Alcazar of the Christian Kings

After completing my tour of the surroundings of the Calahorra Tower I decided to return to the area near the cathedral, but even before going to the hotel I decided to try to access an additional historical site which is the Alcazar of the Christian Kings.

The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, a fortress and palace with solid walls, contains in its interior a large part of the architectural evolution of Cordoba.

The visit to the Alcazar I divide it into three parts and each with a different charm.

Historical charm.

In the corridors of the Alcazar one can find various treasures found in the archaeological excavations.

For example, various mosaics from the first centuries of our era.

And also a large sarcophagus and some busts from Roman times.

Charming views of the city.

Another attraction of the Alcazar is to be able to climb its steep stairs to the top of the towers and from there to see the center of the city.

Or from another of the towers you can see the gardens of the Alcazar, which you will visit later.

Floral charm

Although my visit was in winter, the garden looked beautiful and some flowers were already showing their splendor.

Additionally, I loved this structure in the shape of a giant flower next to one of the fountains.

Roman Temple

After this brief but intense visit to the Alcazar, I decided to return to the hotel, but returning through the center of the city, instead of the Jewish quarter, and that is when I found a beautiful reconstruction of a Roman palace built from the discovery of several columns and capitals during the extension works of the current city hall.

Which confirms that this city has a lot of history and beauty throughout the city.

Last Wednesday

Last Wednesday I was in Cordoba again. This time the visit was in spring and a temperature close to 30 degrees welcomed me. Therefore, the city was even more beautiful than the previous visit due to the great presence of flowers all over the city.

Cordoban courtyards

I walked through the Jewish quarter again, but this time with the intention of going to the neighborhood of the Cordoban courtyards, which is the place where a contest is held in May where neighbors compete for the award for best courtyard in the city.

Despite the fact that there were still two weeks to go until the start of the contest, several of the houses in the area began to present a flowery atmosphere where a passionate photographer has a lot of photos to take macro photographs of different colors.

During the tour, one of the patios participating in the contest in previous years had its doors open and I went inside to contemplate the floral artwork inside.

There were flowers of various types and colors.

And a lemon tree that gave a fresh atmosphere to the place.

DSC01298 (2).JPG

Along with several relics such as an old well and some archaeological remains, as the owner of the courtyard told us.

DSC01299 (2).JPG

After this walk, I returned to visit some of the places I had previously visited in January, such as the Roman bridge and the mosque-cathedral.

DSC01310 (2).JPG

Finally I went to enjoy a tinto de verano and some tapas in the center of the city with my colleague.

I hope you liked this tour of one of the most beautiful cities in Spain.

Best regards

Photographs taken with my Sony Alpha 6000L.

Cover, separators and banner created with www.canva.com (free version).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).