Thank A City Rich in History!
Sometimes it is great to learn a bit of the history of a place before you visit.
BRIEF History of Córdoba
The Roman colony of Corduba, founded in 152 BC, became capital of Baetica province, covering most of today’s Andalucía. In 711 Córdoba fell to the Muslim invaders and soon became the Islamic capital on the Iberian Peninsula. It was here in 756 that Abd ar-Rahman I set himself up as emir of Al-Andalus.
Córdoba’s heyday came under Abd ar-Rahman III (926), who in 929 named himself caliph to set the seal on Al-Andalus’ independence of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. Córdoba was then the biggest city in Western Europe and it had dazzling mosques, libraries, observatories and aqueducts, a university and highly skilled artisans in leather, metal, textiles and glazed tiles. Abd ar-Rahman III’s multicultural court was frequented by Jewish, Arab and Christian scholars, even if Córdoba was certainly not the fabulously tolerant paradise that’s sometimes imagined.
Towards the end of the 10th century, Al-Mansour (Almanzor), a fearsome general, took the reins of power and struck terror into Christian Spain with over 50 razzias (forays) in 20 years.
When he destroyed the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, home of the Santiago cult, he had its bells carried to Córdoba by Christian slaves and hung upside down as oil lamps in the Mezquita. But after his death bands of Berber troops terrorised Córdoba and the caliphate descended into anarchy.
Córdoba was captured in 1236 by Fernando III of Castilla and became less important and the decline began.
What I have found very interesting is that; there are relics from the Roman time , from the rule of the Muslims, and the ever important presence of Judaism.
I have also learned to discover that when the Christians drove the Muslims out of cities such as Cordoba and Granada, they took the existing mosques and built Catholic cathedrals either in place of them, or in the centre of them .
This blog is way too short to get into centuries and centuries of what has happened in Spain .
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand
It was in the late 14th Century that Queen Isabella (and her husband King Ferdinand), drove the Moors out of Granada and Spain. Her reign is what started centuries of The Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews out of Spain.
These statues are in the Alcazar of Córdoba – Queen Isabella, King Ferdinand, and Cristobal Columbus!
It is in this Alcazar in Córdoba, where Christopher Columbus first met with the Queen to propose his wild idea to venture to the New World!
I was very interested in the Catholic Queen Isabella’s reign. I listened to an audio book called, “The Queens Vow”
It certainly has given me much needed insight during this historical trip!
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I am off to Granada tomorrow- where Queen Isabella (the Catholic) and King Ferdinand are buried.
Cordobas Heat
I have been amused by the residents here as they were for her to Córdoba as hell in the summer. Apparently it does get quite hot here during the summer months and becomes unbearable. Today it was 40, but it felt hotter.
The temperature is expected to rise during the rest of the week because there has not been a cloud in the sky. The residents hear say that the sun beginning to bake Córdoba.
I have only seen a small portion of the city in the three short days I’ve been here but you just can’t cover it all in that short of a time period. I I am ever grateful for this opportunity.
Final Pics from Córdoba
I promise to lighten this up next time!
My last few blog posts have been filled with history, but you can’t help it when you’re in a city that was founded so many centuries ago!
KEEP WALKING!
