Magnificent Mezquita

Today we spent quite a few hours touring the Mezquita which is simply a fabulous building in Corboda. 

The Mezquita started out as a Mosque in 768AD, however following the conquest of Córdoba around 1146 a Cathedral was consecrated within the Mosque and a mass has been held in the building every day since.

The beauty of the Mosque-Cathedral is the mix of the Islamic architecture with that of the Christian style which predominates religious buildings throughout Spain.

It is essentially a square or slightly rectangular building with the Islamic features around the outer internal areas and the Cathedral sits in the centre, there being no barriers or walls differentiating the Cathedral from the other areas.

The are columns, too many to count, with arches painted in the Islamic style through the building

The Choir seats commissioned in 1748 are superbly sculptured 

and there are numerous religious artefacts displayed throughout the building

In 1882 the Mezquita was declared a "Historical Artistic National Monument", in 1984 a "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO and in 2014 a "Site of Outstanding Universal Value" - it truely is an exceptional monument.

As we entered the grounds we could hear some Spanish music so wandered over to find a group of 7 young men entertaining the crowd - 2 on guitars, 1 on a drum, and the remainder churning out the vocals - it was very entertaining and I have a video which I hope to post later.

As we came out of the Mezquita the group was still at but now there were ladies dancing to the music as well one of the group was dancing with a bystander - we didn't realise that we enjoyed Latin music so much.

The early afternoon was completed with a stroll through the streets of the Jewish quarter which are as nice an environment of any that we have found in the "Old Towns" that exist in the historic areas that we have visited.

Spices for sale in a spice shop

Back to the hotel for the obligatory dip in the pool and surprise surprise as we were in the pool we saw a few clouds in the sky, one which crossed beneath the sun for 30 seconds or so - we could not remember seeing any other clouds since we arrived in Spain so we were very excited!

When talking with the restaurant owner last night he said that last week it was 52 degrees on one day so we have been really lucky!

P.S. I have noticed that the blog "A misstep" did not publish correctly a few days ago so I have edited it and republished it