When was the Great Mosque of Córdoba begun?
The Great Mosque of Córdoba is begun
Se construye la Mezquita de Córdoba
c. 780s. In the 780s, near the end of his reign, Abd al-Rahman I began a great congregational mosque on the site of the Visigothic basilica of San Vicente, where…
Where: Spain, Córdoba
What happened
In the 780s, near the end of his reign, Abd al-Rahman I began a great congregational mosque on the site of the Visigothic basilica of San Vicente, where Muslims had at first prayed alongside Christians. It was a religious need and a political statement of the new emirate's power. Each later ruler enlarged it: Abd al-Rahman II in the ninth century, Abd al-Rahman III with a tall minaret, al-Hakam II with the dazzling mihrab and its mosaics, and the minister Almanzor, who gave the forest of red-and-white arches the shape it has today. After Fernando III took Córdoba in 1236 it became the cathedral, and in the sixteenth century a Renaissance nave was built inside it. It is now a World Heritage Site and the city's symbol.
Say it
La Mezquita de Córdoba tiene cientos de arcos rojos y blancos.
The Mosque of Córdoba has hundreds of red and white arches.
Why it matters
The Mezquita is the most visited monument of al-Andalus and the clearest image of how Muslim, Christian and later layers sit on top of one another in Spanish culture.
There today
- See
- In the Mezquita of Córdoba you walk through the forest of red-and-white arches, see al-Hakam II's mihrab with its mosaics, and find a Renaissance cathedral nave rising from the middle of the mosque.
Read about it
Connected
- Abd al-Rahman I founds the emirate of Córdoba (14 May 756)
- Abd al-Rahman I founds the emirate of Córdoba (14 May 756)
- The Caliphate of Córdoba (16 January 929)
- Valencia and Seville fall to the Christian kings (between 1236 and 1248)
Sources
- The history — Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba (Cabildo Catedral)