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CORDOBA - SPAIN
Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain,
and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77°
West, on the Guadalquivir river, it was founded in ancient Roman times as
Corduba by Claudius Marcellus. Its population is about 306,000 as of 2004.
Today a moderate sized modern city, the old town contains many impressive
architectural reminders of when Córdoba was the thriving capital of the
Caliphate of Andalucia.
Córdoba was the birthplace of three famous
philosophers: the Roman Stoic, Seneca, the Arab Averroes, and the Jewish
Maimonides. Córdoba was also the birthplace of the Roman poet, Lucan and
(more recently) of several flamenco artists including Paco Peña, Vicente
Amigo and Joaquín Cortes.
History of Córdoba
Roman Córdoba in Hispania Baetica
In Roman times, the city had more cultural buildings than Rome. It was the
Baetica's capital of the province of Hispania Baetica. Remains of the Roman
Temple built by Claudius Marcellus, the Roman Bridge (illustration, right)
and other Roman remains can still be seen around the city.
Caliphate of Córdoba
Córdoba was conquered by the Moors in 711, and Moorish influence can still
be felt in the city. During the time of Islamic rule, as the seat of the
Umayyad caliphs, Córdoba was the largest city and embodied the most
sophisticated culture and the most developed bureaucracy in Europe. Córdoba
reached its peak in the 10th century, under three great rulers: the first
Caliph, Abd-ar-rahman III ("al-Nasir," 912–61), his son al-Hakam II (961–76)
and the brilliant adventurer Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, more familiar as
Almansor, "the Victorious," (981–1002). The 10th century Caliphate of
Córdoba was the largest, culturally the most sophisticated polity in all
Europe. Contemporary chroniclers, all of them Arabic, like the geographer
Ibn Hawkal in 948, marvelled, "the amount of coins in circulation! the
variety of crops grown! the people!" — Córdoba may have had a quarter of a
million people — "the textiles! the gardens! the mosques!" — there were more
than 1,000 mosques and 600 public baths.
The German Emperor Otto I sent his emissaries to the Caliph; it never
occurred to send anyone to the Kingdom of Leon, which lay to the north.
But in the 1020s and 1030s the whole imposing political structure collapsed,
fissioned into more than a dozen successor statelets, known to historians as
(the reinos de taifas) such as Seville, Badajoz, Toledo, Saragossa,
Albarracín, Valencia, Almería and Granada. Heirs to the wealth of the
Caliphate, their instability and endemic hostilities among themselves, made
them vulnerable to attacks from the Christian north. The history of Córdoba
after the mid 11th century shrinks to the story of the city and its
immediate hinterland.
The most important monument in the city is the former Mosque (the 3rd
largest mosque in the world), known as the Mezquita. After the conquest, the
Christians built a cathedral in the middle of this large complex, so it is
two temples in one.
Another splendid monument is the city (in ruins) Madinat Al-Zahira.
Important monuments are also the Alcazar, where in 1492, Christopher
Columbus got permission to travel to the "Indies". The califal baths and its
churchs and typical streets of the Jewish quarter Judería.
Christian Córdoba
Córdoba was retaken for Christianity as part of the Reconquista in 1236, and
became a centre of activity against the remaining Islamic population.
Surviving Renaissance monuments in Córdoba include the Palacio de Viana, the
city's Ducal Palace.
It is currently the only major Spanish city with a Communist mayor.
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