Cordoba - Beautiful, Friendly, Festive, Small - and Hugely Historic
Cordoba is an incredibly beautiful city, that
The scale of time is different here. For example, when our country was founded in 1776, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba had been a Roman Catholic church for three hundred years. But that Catholic church built within a mosque that had been operating for seven hundred years ... which had been built partly with parts scavenged from an early Visogothic church ... which was most likely built on something the Romans had there. The layers of history are dramatic, and somehow quite visible.
I visited a museum nearby, dedicated to the memory of the Sephardim, the story of their persecution in Spain, and the diaspora that followed.
Monday, I visited the Museo Vivo al Andalus, which offers an overview of the practices and beliefs that existed in the time between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the early 700s to the completion of the Christian 'reconquista' in 1492. This latter date relates to the Shephardim, since Jews were an integral, welcome part of Al Andalus, but were targeted mercilessly in the Inquisition, after Spain was reconquered.
The Bell Tower, from the middle of the courtyard
then from the bell level
The seashells embedded in this stone at the top of the Bell Tower speak to its source at the coast, near Malaga, over 100 miles away.
One can only imagine in the days of the Ummayid, with this mosque filled with thousands of worshipers.
My man, Frank ... from Assisi
Presumably he wandered in after this changed from a mosque to a church
I would be remiss if I didn't note, with tremendous gratitude, my host, Yolanda. She is everything a traveler to a new city could hope to find; gave me directions, met me at the door with a warm, welcoming smile, provided maps and suggestions for attractions, and restaurants, and contacted me to make sure things were going well. We didn't remain strangers for long; I made a wonderful new friend with Yolanda.
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