John Edward Cooper’s Notes

CÓRDOBA
After breakfast we leave Seville and head east to another of Andalucía's classic cities, arriving in Cordoba for our guided tour. Cordoba was the ancient capital of the Moors and is principally famous for a single building – The Mezquita – the grandest and most beautiful mosque ever constructed in the Moorish World. Entrance fees to the The Mezquita are included here. It stands in the centre of the old town which was once the home of a thriving Jewish community. It is a building of extraordinary power and mystery. One can only wonder at the architectural brilliance of the builders all those hundreds of years ago, whilst northern Europe was immersed in the depths of the Dark Ages.
Another feature of Cordoba is the immense, well preserved Roman bridge. Cordoba is a delightful place full of patios drenched in the colour of thousands of flowers, the Spanish people seem to take so much pride decorating the sleepy whitewashed houses. We then continue our journey to arrive in the greatest city in Andalucía, Granada, capital of the Sultans during the middle ages and home to what can only be described as one of the world’s greatest buildings – the Alhambra. As we approach Granada, there can be no more proof of the diversity of this corner of southern Europe. We pass through some very arid countryside with a landscape of dried river beds, giving way to rolling olive groves. In the distance is the spectacular Sierra Nevada, the highest mountain range in Spain – snow-capped throughout the year, it provides a quite spectacular backdrop. The landscape then becomes more fertile and picturesque with ancient olive trees stretching off into the distance.
Our hotel for the next two nights is either the centrally located four-star Hotel Corona, in the heart of the city and within easy walking distance of the principal areas of interest or the four-star Hotel Alixares, also well located and actually opposite the Alhambra – both fully air-conditioned and ideal for a comfortable stay.

Janet packed the remaining suitcase, and we strapped it up; then we went down for breakfast. We were down again with the two suitcases and our hand luggage, to check out, a little before 9am (the time Manuel told us for setting out). The journey of somewhat less than 90 miles east-northeast to Córdoba took about two hours, including a “comfort stop” on the way. Before we got there, Manuel handed out A4-size maps of Córdoba. I can’t remember at which stage of the journey to Granada — this, or this afternoon’s — he handed out the A3-size maps of Granada.



The coach stopped on the north-west bank of the Guadalquivir river (the same one that flows farther along its course through Seville); and Manuel led us two or three hundred yards north-east along Avenida del Alcázar, passing the Alcázar[i] de los Reyes Cristianos on our left, as far as the Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir river to our right. There we turned left, skirting the triumphal arch Puerta del Puente and passing a column mounted on a grotto topped with a statue of Raphael the Archangel, and we stopped by the west façade of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba at an entrance about two-thirds along that side.

[i] I’m not sure when I made the connection between “Alcázar” and the structures called “Qasr” that we encountered three years ago in Jordan (e.g. 10 September 2014), “al-Qasr” being Arabic for “the fort, castle, or palace”, assumed to be derived from Latin castrum “castle, fort”. I think I did so before Manuel told us the same. The plural castra, denoting a military camp, is the element that appears in “Lancaster”, “Doncaster”, and indeed, nearer home, “Caistor”.

Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:14:26
Roman Bridge and Guadalquivir river, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:14:26 (detail 1)
Roman Bridge, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:14:26 (detail 2)
Roman Bridge and its 12th–14th century fortified gate the Calahorra Tower, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:15:16
Roman Bridge, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:15:34
Bridge Gate, 16th century triumphal arch, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:15:34 (detail)
Bridge Gate, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:16:56
Triumph of St. Raphael (the archangel), protector and custodian of Córdoba

There we met our guide Lola, whose praises (shall we say?) Manuel had been humorously singing on the coach before we arrived — I suspected, a bit tongue-in-cheek. Tickets were handed out, and we entered the gate into the former courtyard of the mosque used for ritual ablutions.[ii] Before we entered the courtyard, and after — also when we were in the building itself, and after that on the tour — we paused from time to time while Lola told us things and pointed out features. We had with us radio receivers to facilitate this. The year 1492 had already been repeatedly mentioned as significant in Spanish history as being when the Reconquista by Christian forces from the Muslims was completed. We were already familiar with “1492” from the rhyme—

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

—or from 1492 Pictures, the film production company founded by director Chris Columbus, known to us inter alie from three of the Harry Potter movies. But Manuel had also made plain to us, and Lola reinforced this, that the Reconquista had been a gradual process over a number of centuries; e.g. Seville, where we’d just been, was taken in 1248, and Córdoba a little before this in 1236. When the building we were visiting had been a mosque, it had undergone three enlargements, the differing features of which were pointed out as we proceeded through. In Seville, the mosque itself, apart from the minaret and courtyard, had been obliterated and replaced, as were most mosques following the Reconquista. But here was the striking phenomenon of a soaring, Gothic-style nave-and-transept structure inserted right in the middle of the Moorish one, the rest of which was retained not destroyed. Even the mihrab (oddly facing approximately south, not the qibla direction 10° south of east) was preserved. Indeed, Spanish Muslims have been lobbying the Roman Catholic authorities in Spain and the Vatican to allow them to pray there, but their pleas have been repeatedly rejected. The 16th century insertion was controversial; but it was finally permitted by the absentee king Charles I — “absentee” because he was also the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. However, afterwards when he visited and saw what was done, the story goes that he regretted his decision, saying, “They have taken something unique in all the world and destroyed it to build something you can find in any city!”

[ii] The cathedral in Seville has the same feature, indeed with the same name: the Orange Tree Courtyard.

Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:27:00
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Gate of the Deans in the west façade


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:27:00 (detail 1)
Lola


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:27:00 (detail 2)
Manuel


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:28:36
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: bell-tower, from the Orange Tree Courtyard


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:33:32
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: the Orange Tree Courtyard

After we entered the building, we went southwards through the vast hypostyle hall to the mihrab. Lola mentioned “mihrab and minbar”, but I didn’t see any sign of the latter (usually an elevated pulpit reached by a ladder).


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:35:52
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:37:20
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:37:50
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:38:30
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:39:54
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:40:20
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba

As we proceeded, I caught to the left glimpses of the spectacular nave.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:42:44
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:43:08
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:43:32
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:43:48
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:45:08
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:46:02
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:47:12
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:48:06
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:48:20
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:49:32
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:49:44
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:50:04
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:50:14
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:54:04
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:54:40
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab, lower part


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:54:50
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab, dome


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:55:02
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: left of the mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:55:10
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab, dome


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:56:22
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab, seen through arches of the second enlargement (of Al-Hakam II)


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:57:42
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: door to the right of the mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:57:50
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: door to the right of the mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:58:04
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:58:18
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:58:38
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: door to the left of the mihrab


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:58:46
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: door to the left of the mihrab

Left of the mihrab was the Chapel of St. Theresa, which we entered, then passed through two rooms adjoining it, before returning to the hall of the former mosque.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 11:59:12
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: entering the Chapel of St. Theresa, to the left of the mihrab structures


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:00:14
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:00:28
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:01:28
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa — “The Conquest of Córdoba by Fernando III the Saint”, painted ca.1713


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:01:28 (edit)
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa — “The Conquest of Córdoba by Fernando III the Saint”, painted ca.1713


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:02:08
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa — silver monstrance, 1514–1518


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:02:38
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa — silver monstrance, 1514–1518


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:02:52
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Chapel of St. Theresa


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:03:02
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: entering the Treasury from the Chapel of St. Theresa


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:03:54
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: first room of the Treasury


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:04:52
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: second room of the Treasury

Here, we stopped to look at the pillars, and in particular the stonemasons’ marks on them, before proceeding to the Renaissance nave.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:06:42
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: third enlargement (of Almanzor)


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:07:06
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: third enlargement (of Almanzor), stonemason’s mark


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:08:28
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:08:42
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:11:20
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave and transept


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:11:54
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave, choir


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:12:56
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave, pulpit


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:13:04
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave, pulpit


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:13:14
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave and transept


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:13:32
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave and transept


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:13:40
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance transept


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:14:46
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:20:56
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:21:04
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:21:24
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave, main chapel


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:21:30
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave, main chapel


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:22:28
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Renaissance nave and transept


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:24:16
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: stained-glass window in the Renaissance nave


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:24:16 (edit)
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: stained-glass window in the Renaissance nave


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:25:36
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: side chapels


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:26:30
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: the Orange Tree Courtyard


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:27:26
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: the Orange Tree Courtyard


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:27:40
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: the Orange Tree Courtyard


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:29:18
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: detail of the bell-tower, with statue of St. Raphael (the archangel) above the cupola


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:31:48
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: irrigation channels in the Orange Tree Courtyard

We left by the gate just to the right of the bell tower on the north side; and, turning left, went to visit the Jewish Quarter, passing through a zoco (“souk”) constructed in traditional style in the 1950s, and ending, by way of the narrow, buttress-arched Calle Judíos (“Jews Street”) to Plaza Maimónides.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:32:46
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Gate of Forgiveness in the north façade


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:32:54
Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Gate of Forgiveness and bell-tower


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:36:06
Calle Romero, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:39:44
Bust of Mohamed Al­Gafequi, 12th-century Andalusian oculist, erected in 1965 for his eighth centenary, Plaza del Cardenal Salazar, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:41:50
The 18th century former Hospital of Cardinal Salazar, now the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:43:48
Calle del Cardenal Salazar, Córdoba, looking back
 “He encontrado un atajo”
 (“I’ve found a shortcut”)


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:43:58
Turning right into Calle Averroes, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:44:42
Passing the Chapel of St. Bartholomew in Calle Averroes, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:44:56
Chapel of St. Bartholomew, Calle Averroes, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:45:12
Entering the Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía from Calle Averroes, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:45:36
Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:45:52
Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:46:26
Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:47:34
Turning left from the Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía into Calle Judíos, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:47:56
Turning left from the Zoco Municipal de la Artesanía into Calle Judíos, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:48:16
Calle Judíos, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:49:52
Maimonides monument in Plaza de Tiberiades, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:50:28
Brass letters
 ? ספה s-f-h
 “snatched away”?
on the ground before the Maimonides monument in Plaza de Tiberiades, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:51:18
Maimonides monument in Plaza de Tiberiades, Córdoba
 (signature:) Mōšeh bēn-Maymōn
 BEN MAIMONIDES
 Theologian Philosopher Doctor
 Córdoba 1135 El Cairo 1204


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:51:56
Lola by the Maimonides monument in Plaza de Tiberiades, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:53:50
Plaza Maimónides, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 12:54:30
Courtyard of the Bullfighting Museum, Plaza Maimónides, Córdoba

From there we went along narrow streets to the starting point outside the west side of the Cathedral, where Lola left us. Manuel had mentioned the neighbourhood of San Basilio as a place to find restaurants for lunch; indeed, he had marked Calle de San Basilio on the map. He himself was going to one, and although he declined to make recommendations said that as many of us as wanted to could come with him. One of its attractions would be a guitarist playing from about two o’clock. I’m not sure whether he had reckoned on just about everyone joining him! Anyway, he phoned ahead to let the management know that there were nearly fifty about to descend on them. There was some delay setting out, because two of our party had gone off in search of a loo. We passed the Alcázar on our left, then the old Royal Stables, at the end of which we went through an arch in what remained of the old city wall into San Basilio.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 13:22:56
Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 13:25:08
Arch at the end of Calle Caballerizas Reales, Córdoba

We were seated at tables for four, so Janet and I were joined by another couple — who had a tendency to one-upmanship with us, and were able to complain in Spanish to the waiting-staff! Not that Janet and I had any complaints, because we enjoyed what we had. (“Do you play golf?” was perhaps her opening question to us.)


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:47:52
La Posada del Caballo Andaluz, Calle San Basilio 16, 14004 Córdoba

So there was a procession of us all, going; but we returned in dribs and drabs. When Janet and I left, we turned right out of Calle San Basilio into Calle Martín de Roa, left through the arch into Calle Caballerizas Reales, right at the corner of the Alcázar into Pasaje Santa Teresa Jornet, and right at the end of that into Avenida del Alcázar, where just opposite the end of the Alcázar our coach was waiting.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:55:28
Calle Martín de Roa, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:55:28 (detail)
Calle Martín de Roa, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:56:00
Arch leading to Calle Caballerizas Reales, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:56:34
Calle Caballerizas Reales, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:58:12
Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos seen from Calle Caballerizas Reales, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 14:59:08
Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos seen from Pasaje Santa Teresa Jornet, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 15:00:16
Going back to the waiting coach in Avenida del Alcázar, Córdoba


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 15:03:20
Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos seen from Avenida del Alcázar, Córdoba

We set out not long after 3pm on the just over 100-mile journey south-east to Granada. The landscape was chequered with olive trees, often as far as the eye could see. Manuel told us that Spain was the world’s largest producer of olive oil, accounting for over 45% of the total production. Italy was the largest exporter, but some of that was likely to be Spanish produce. He also talked at some length about the Spanish Civil War, especially as we went by Baena where there occurred a ruthless mass-execution of Spanish republicans.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 15:28:26
Views from the coach en route to Granada


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 15:45:46
Views from the coach en route to Granada: Espejo

We stopped for a refreshment and “comfort” break at a restaurant which had been a railway station. 


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 16:22:16
Restaurante Nicol’s, a former railway station, Luque


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 16:50:52
Views from the coach en route to Granada


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 16:58:24
Views from the coach en route to Granada: Alcaudete


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 17:00:22
Views from the coach en route to Granada


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 17:31:24
Views from the coach en route to Granada


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 17:32:18
Views from the coach en route to Granada

We arrived at the hotel in Granada ca.6.30pm. Manuel handed out to us key-cards in little paper folders, then we queued for the lifts.





After we’d opened the cases, and Janet had unpacked and sorted some of the stuff, we went out. Manuel had marked on the map he’d handed out some streets near the hotel where one could find places to eat; but when we went there, all the restaurants were shut — or most: there were a few tapas bars, but we didn’t fancy them.



We wandered around for a bit, beginning to feel a bit despondent, but then found a place, Ápol, opposite the hotel. (Actually, we’d lost our bearings somewhat, and it was in a street on the other side of the block opposite the hotel!) The menu was in Spanish, and they didn’t have an English version; what’s more, the staff didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Spanish; but we managed to communicate what we wanted. “Cerveza” was easy! The meaning of “Ensalada Cesar” also was clear. Janet had difficulty explaining what she wanted, but learned a useful lesson in Spanish: “ensalada sin salsa” — “con salsa o sin salsa”.


Tuesday 5 September 2017 — 20:26:02
Ápol, Calle Alhamar 41, 18004 Granada

It was when we left there that we realised that we didn’t know quite where we were. But the road ahead off to the right, Calle Manuel de Falla, was shown on the map, so we knew then that the hotel was just a right turn away from that. Back up in the room, I logged on to the hotel’s Wi-Fi and checked e-mail accounts (21:00)… We were both in bed ca.10pm.

[Wednesday 6 September 2017 (1)]