CORDOBA

Córdoba (320,0000 inhabitants), is one of the more interesting city of Andalusia in Spain. The city was founded from the Roman that called it Corduba, it was situated in the more inside navigable point of the Guadalquivir River, and became a port and a trading center of great importance, of this period remain the majestic Roman Bridge. In the 711 it was conquered from the Arabs. Cordoba's period of greatest glory began in the 8th century after the Moorish conquest, when some 300 mosques and innumerable palaces and public buildings were built to rival the splendours of Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad. During the Arabic domination (711-1263), Córdoba, was the cultural and artistic center, as well as the main center of power of the Iberian peninsula, and one of the larger cities of Europe, esteem that it had a population of approximately 500.000 inhabitants. When the Ummayadi caliphs were deposed in Damascus, in the 756, moved to Córdoba where they governed an independent emirat until 929. The city reach the apex of its power in 10th century, under the governments of Abd al-Rahman III that became Caliph in 929, under its son al-Hakam II (961-76) and under Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir (Almansor or Almanzor, 981-1002). Córdoba during this period was the capital city of a Caliphate (known also with the name of Al-Andalus) that controlled nearly all the Iberian peninsula. It was during this period that were constructed the main Islamic buildings of Córdoba, between which the more important it's the Mezquita whose construction had beginning in 784, on the place of a Christian basilica, but that in 10th century was increased until becoming one of the greatest mosques of the world. At the beginnig of 11th century some decades of civil war carried to the collapse of the Caliphate and to the consequent dismemberment in many small Muslems kingdoms, called “reinos de taifas”. The Christian forces occupied Córdoba in 1236.  In the 13th century, under Ferdinand III, the Saint, Cordoba's Great Mosque was turned into a cathedral and new defensive structures, particularly the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos and the Torre Fortaleza de la Calahorra, were erected.

Cordoba main attractions: In 1994 the historical center of Cordoba has been inserted from the Unesco in the list of the World-Heritage properties of the humanity. The visit of the city obviously must start from the wonderful mosque (Mezquita), that it's the more famous and beautiful building of the city. The entrance is through the Patio de los Naranjos, a classic Muslim courtyard for the ablutions with orange trees and the fountains, in origin all 19 aisles of the mosque were opened towards this courtyard, having produced an evocative scenic effect, after the Christian conquest inside of the mosque were built several chapels: in 1371, Alfonso X built the Capilla Villaviciosa with amazing arcade; in the 14th century Enrico II built the Capilla Real in Mudejar style that was used as pantheon for the Spanish monarchs. In 1523, inside of the mosque, the construction of the Cathedral was begun. The Cathedral was finished in 1599, these works carried to the realization of this extraordinary architectonic union of a church-mosque that we can today admire.