Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at the site of the mosque without giving further details. The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I's initial arrival in al-Andalus. The mosque structure is an important monument in the history of Islamic architecture and was highly influential on the subsequent "Moorish" architecture of the western Mediterranean regions of the Muslim world.
Architectural Critique and Contemporary Relevance
What is today the 17th-century Chapel of the Conception (Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción), located on the west wall near the courtyard, was initially the baptistery in the 13th century. According to Jiménez de Rada, Ferdinand III also carried out the symbolic act of returning the former cathedral bells of Santiago de Compostela that were looted by Al-Mansur (and which had been turned into mosque lamps) back to Santiago de Compostela. Upon the city's conquest the mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Santa Maria).
The city has built many monuments to San Rafael, but the most… The courtyard of the Orange Trees leads to the complex. The mihrab is one of the most important in the Muslim world, being the most noble piece of the Mosque-Cathedral. The mosque underwent consecutive extensions over later centuries. It is a mixture of architectural styles superimposed on one another over the nine centuries its construction and renovations lasted.
- The mosque-cathedral of Cordoba (locally known as the Mezquita) is one of the most impressive examples of Muslim architecture in the world.
- Mosques were normally aligned with the qibla (the direction of prayer), which is theoretically the direction of Mecca.
- The bell tower was built in the 17th century over what was the mosque’s minaret.
- The narrative of the church being transformed into a mosque, which goes back to the tenth-century historian Al-Razi, echoed similar narratives of the Islamic conquest of Syria, in particular the story of building the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
- The first two architects introduced Gothic elements into the design which are visible in the elaborate tracery design of the stone vaults over the transept arms and above the altar.
- This insertion disrupted the mosque’s expansive horizontality with a centralized vertical thrust characteristic of Christian cathedrals, initiating a dialogue of architectural dissonance that continues to provoke discourse today.
According to Muslim sources, before leaving the city the Christians plundered the mosque, carrying off its chandeliers, the gold and silver finial of the minaret, and parts of the rich minbar. The archbishop of Toledo, Raymond de Sauvetât, accompanied by the king, led a mass inside the mosque to "consecrate" the building. Under Almoravid rule, the artisan workshops of Cordoba were commissioned to design new richly crafted minbars for the most important mosques of Morocco – most famously the Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque commissioned in 1137 – which were likely inspired by the model of al-Hakam II's minbar in the Great Mosque. The rectangular area within this, in front of the mihrab, was covered by three more decorative ribbed domes. At the beginning of al-Hakam's extension, the central "nave" of the mosque was highlighted with an elaborate ribbed dome (now part of the Capilla da Villaviciosa).
Juan de Ochoa finished the structure in a more Mannerist style typical at the time, finishing the project with an elliptical dome over the crossing and a barrel vault ceiling – with lunettes along the side – over the choir area. The first two architects introduced Gothic elements into the design which are visible in the elaborate tracery design of the stone vaults over the transept arms and above the altar. The design was drafted by Hernan Ruiz I, the first architect in charge of the project, and was continued after his death by Hernan Ruiz II (his son) and then by Juan de Ochoa. The dome at the summit is topped by a sculpture of Saint Raphael which was added in 1664 by architect Gaspar de la Peña, who had been hired to perform other repairs and fix structural problems. On two of the tower's façades there were three of these windows side by side, while on the two other façades the windows were arranged in two pairs.
These three areas appear to have been the most important focal points of Christian https://www.velwinscasino.gr/ activity in the early cathedral. It is likely that the mosque's minbar was also restored at this time, since it is known to have survived long afterwards up to the 16th century. As a result of both this pillage and the earlier pillage during the fitna, the mosque had lost almost all of its valuable furnishings. Indeed, the collapse of authority had immediate negative consequences for the mosque, which was looted and damaged during the fitna (civil conflict) that followed the caliphate's fall (roughly between 1009 and 1030). After the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba at the beginning of the 11th century, no further expansions to the mosque were carried out.
The hypostyle hall
In 785, the self-proclaimed emir ordered the construction of a mosque that was to be more beautiful than that of his homeland, Damascus. The hypostyle hall, Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (1984) by Historic Centre of CordobaUNESCO World Heritage The Visigoths later replaced the temple with a church, only for that to be demolished in the 8th century to make way for the current building. Under the rule of the Visigoths, the Basilica of San Vicente occupied this very site, and later, after the Moslems bought part of the plot of land, a primitive Mosque was built.
- Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at the site of the mosque without giving further details.
- This is one of the reasons why the mosque, along with Cordoba’s historic center, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Charles V only visited the cathedral after it was completed and was not too pleased.
- After the mosque’s conversion to a cathedral in 1236, Spanish Christian designs were increasingly added to new or existing gates.
- The mosque underwent consecutive extensions over later centuries.
- The minaret of the mosque was also converted directly into a bell tower for the cathedral, with only cosmetic alterations such as the placement of a cross at its summit.
The door on the right, Bab al-Sabat ("door of the sabat"), gave access to a passage which originally led to the sabat, an elevated passage over the street which connected the mosque to the caliph's palace. Horseshoe arches were known in the Iberian Peninsula in the Visigothic period (e.g. the 7th-century Church of San Juan de Baños) and to a lesser extent in Byzantine and Umayyad regions of the Middle East. Because we share the belief that architectural components must by definition behave logically, their conversion into agents of chaos fuels a basic subversion of our expectations concerning the nature of architecture. It also would have served as a hall for teaching and for Sharia law cases during the rule of Abd al-Rahman I and his successors. To the people of al-Andalus "the beauty of the mosque was so dazzling that it defied any description."
Architecture
Those arches are supported by 856 Roman columns shaped from precious stones such as jasper, onyx, marble, granite and porphyry. The mosque-cathedral of Cordoba (locally known as the Mezquita) is one of the most impressive examples of Muslim architecture in the world. It was built by King Henry II to fulfil the wishes of his father, Alfonso XI of Castile and León, who wanted to be laid to rest in the cathedral where his own father, Fernando IV, was already buried.
Bell tower and former minaret
Some of the original building materials from the Visigothic basilica can still be seen in the first section of the Mosque built by Abderraman I. The interior space consists of a forest of columns and red and white arches giving a strong chromatic effect. The original structure was built by the Umayyad ruler ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān I in 784–786 with extensions in the 9th and 10th centuries that doubled its size, ultimately making it one of the largest sacred buildings in the Islamic world. Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Islamic mosque in Córdoba, Spain, which was converted into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century. The conversion from mosque to cathedral reflects broader historical conquest and cultural transformation patterns.
A unique building with a history spanning eight centuries. The deep emotional responses that the mosque evoked in him found expression in his poem called "The Mosque of Cordoba". Al-Idrisi, writing in the Almohad era, devoted almost his entire entry on Córdoba, several pages in all, to describing the great mosque, giving almost forensic detail about its constituent parts. The diocese never presented a formal title of ownership nor did provide a judicial sentence sanctioning the usurpation on the basis of a long-lasting occupation, with the sole legal argument being that of the building's "consecration" after 1236, as a cross-shaped symbol of ash was reportedly drawn on the floor at the time. The building was formally registered for the first time by the Córdoba's Cathedral Cabildo in 2006 on the basis of the article 206 of the Ley Hipotecaria from 1946 (whose constitutionality has been questioned).
The new tower had imperfections, however, and required repairs only a few decades later in the mid-17th century. The construction resumed under architect Juan Sequero de Matilla in 1616 and the tower was finished in 1617. Construction began in 1593 but eventually stalled due to resources being spent instead on the construction of the new cathedral nave and transept happening at the same time. The altarpiece was designed in a Mannerist style by Alonso Matías and construction began in 1618.
Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
An inscription is also included in the mosaics of the middle dome of the maqsura, in front of the mihrab. More inscriptions are carved into the stone imposts on either side of the mihrab niche's arch, above the small engaged columns. The three bays of the maqsura area (the space in front of the mihrab and the spaces in front of the two side doors) are each covered by ornate ribbed domes. The lower walls on either side of the mihrab are panelled with marble carved with intricate arabesque vegetal motifs, while the spandrels above the arch are likewise filled with carved arabesques. The mihrab opens in the wall at the middle of this maqsura, while two doors flank it on either side. The dome is now part of the Villaviciosa Chapel and two of the three intersecting arch screens are still present (the western one has disappeared and been replaced by the 15th-century Gothic nave added to the chapel).
By leaving the mosque to coexist with the cathedral, the building is a physical repository of power struggles in Spain.page needed Additionally, it is a showcase of architectural hybridity, representing ideological intersections between Christianity and Islam.page needed Abd al-Rahman III added the mosque's first minaret (tower used by the muezzin for the call to prayer) in the mid-10th century. This maqsura area covers three bays along the southern qibla wall in front of the mihrab, and was marked off from the rest of the mosque by an elaborate screen of intersecting horseshoe and polylobed arches; a feature which would go on to be highly influential in the subsequent development of Moorish architecture. At the south end of the prayer hall is a richly decorated mihrab (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) surrounded by an architecturally defined maqsura (an area reserved for the emir or caliph during prayer), which date from the expansion of Caliph Al-Hakam II after 965. The mosque-cathedral's hypostyle hall dates from the original mosque construction and originally served as its main prayer space for Muslims. The minaret of the mosque was also converted directly into a bell tower for the cathedral, with only cosmetic alterations such as the placement of a cross at its summit.