Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

The great mosque of Umayyad Córdoba, famed for its forest of striped arches, with a Renaissance cathedral set in its middle.

In 1236 Christian armies from Castile captured the city and turned the mosque into a cathedral, and in the 1500s a whole Renaissance church was built right in the middle of it. That is why it is one building with two very different hearts. It is still the city's cathedral, with Mass held every day, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Many people consider it one of the most important buildings in the history of Islamic architecture.

A forest of arches

Inside the old prayer hall, rows and rows of columns stretch away in every direction like trees in a forest. Today there are about 850 of them, made of jasper, onyx, marble, granite and porphyry. The first builders reused columns taken from older Roman and Visigothic buildings, but these were too short for a tall roof. Their clever answer was a double arch: a lower horseshoe-shaped arch with a round arch stacked above it. The arches are striped red and white because they alternate red brick with pale stone.

How it grew

The first mosque was built very quickly, in about a year, and had around 120 columns. Later rulers kept adding to it. Abd al-Rahman III built a minaret, a tower for the call to prayer, finished in 958. His son al-Hakam II added a new mihrab, the decorated niche that shows which way to face when praying, covered in shining gold mosaics. The last and biggest extension came in 987–988 under the powerful minister al-Mansur, who widened the hall to the east because the river blocked growth to the south.

A church inside a mosque

After 1236 the building was used as a cathedral, but for almost 300 years it changed only a little. Then, in 1523, church leaders began building a tall cathedral nave and transept in the centre of the old prayer hall, removing some of the arches to make room. Córdoba's city council strongly objected, but King Charles V allowed the work. The old minaret was later wrapped inside a new bell tower, finished in 1617. Today visitors walk from the dim, endless arches straight into a bright, soaring church.

On the globe

The model shows the great mosque of Córdoba with its Renaissance cathedral rising from the middle. Zoom in to find the cathedral roof standing up out of the wide, low mosque.