Inside the Great Mosque of Cordoba

On the advice of a couple of other travellers, we wound our way over to Cordoba to see the old town and the Great Mosque – one of the greatest Islamic buildings in Spain, and one of the largest mosques ever built. It was indeed a pretty splendid building, a sea of columns with some fantastic treasures including a wall that was a mosaic of gold. It was a rough place to get a picture that really captured a sense of the space though, but it was very magnificent inside.

Unfortunately, the whole place left a bad flavour in my mouth because of the information pamphlet they gave out at the door. The whole thing had a condescending tone towards Islam, first off calling what everyone calls the Grand Mosque is called the the Grand Cathedral, and then diminishing the splendour of the mosque by saying:

Thus the beauty of the Cathedral of Cordoba does not reside in its architectural grandeur, but in the apostolic succession of the Bishop as a symbol of his pastoral service and the unity of the Church, founded upon the Word of the Lord, the sacraments, and the community of believers.

I just don’t understand why they have felt the need to diminish the grandeur of the building or the contribution of the culture that built most of it. Another choice line was:

It is a historical fact that the basilica of San Vincente was expropriated and destroyed in order to build what would later be the Mosque, a reality that questions the theme of tolerance that was supposedly cultivated in the Cordobra of the moment.

So here they are bashing the Islamic empire for a lack of tolerance in a pamphlet that is itself contains. It also condemns the destruction of the historical building, yet the Catholics plunked a massive cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. In any case, if you are in Andalucia, it is well worth seeing the building but I’d avoid the pamphlet.

In just about every city in Spain, there was a fantastic cathedral to be explored and photographed. There were more than we had time for, but here are some of my favourites. Starting with Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, pictured above. Just opposite the royal palace in Madrid, Almudena is a clean neoclassical cathedral, a sort that doesn’t normally get me to excited. However, the placement at the far end of the palance court yard allow for every open views of the facade, which made for some powerful contrasting shows in the afternoon sun.

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