Cordoba

Our Saturday plan was to visit Cordoba, which was an hour train ride from Seville. Cordoba used to be the cultural center of all of Europe in the tenth century, and at one time had three times the population of Paris. Cordoba was also known to be more enlightened in terms of accepting all religions, and it had a time where Catholics, Muslims and Jews all lived together in harmony. It seemed like a cool place to go for the day.  After a frustrating experience in securing train tickets form Madrid to Seville, Sue finally had built up enough confidence in the Renfe train system web site to purchase our travel tickets for the day. This time it was a piece of cake (only taking 2 attempts) so off we went to Cordoba.

The main attraction in Cordoba is the Mezquita, which is a cathedral built on a mosque built on a church. The cathedral started in the 1200s, and rather than tearing down the mosque, the builders simply incorporated the mosque structure and added a few cathedral touches.  The mosque was started in 732, built on top of a small church, part of which is still visible from inside the mosque. In spite of the building being used as a Cathedral for the last 900 years, 70% of the Mosque part still remains, and the combination is unlike any building structure I have ever seen.

Inside, it looks like Candyland. 

There are over 800 columns with double arches above them, with alternating red bricks and white stones.  Some of the columns were made at the time of the mosque, and you can see the signatures of the carvers in each column they created.  Other columns were appropriated from Roman temples, which were dismantled to build the mosque.

The floor of the Mesquita is really large, which was necessary so that it could accommodate up to 20,000 Muslims in prayer at one time. In one part, the marble stones are the size of prayer mats, and are pointing towards Mecca, making it easy for worshipers to organize and orient themselves. Smack dab in the middle of this beautiful and sedate Islamic architecture the Spanish King Fernando the III built Cordoba's Holy Cathedral church.   Overall, the new cathedral isn't nearly as impressive as Sevilla's Cathedral, but in combination with the Muslim architecture made the whole experience of being there my favorite so far on this adventure.

Once again, Laurel was our audio guide, narrating from the Rick Steve's book, and she really seemed to enjoy being there.  Bryce was also very interested in the architecture as he took notice of the use of double arches which allows higher ceilings without losing precious natural light. 

After touring the Mezquita, we found an awesome lunch spot (Bodega Mezquita), and then walked over the old Roman bridge, and then through the old Jewish Quarter, with its windy streets and numerous shops. For dessert, we found an Arabic tea house, and we all had mint tea and a plate of Arabic baklava-like desserts and dried fruits.  (This was a perfect way to introduce the kids to Arabic culture in advance of our visit to Morocco next week.)

We got to the train station early, and I convinced Sue to take a poi photo while we were awaiting our train ride.

Laurel and Bryce seemed to be really inspired by seeing the Mezquita, and all the way home they were planning their next Minecraft construction project, with a Mosque, Cathedral, and a Zombie torture chamber.  (We saw part of an Inquisition Museum on our walk, hence the torture chamber.)  They have been doing architecture projects on the iPad during most of their free time, which is great, as it shows they are getting some great exposure to new things and incorporating them into their play.