You're in front of the Puerta de San Idlefonso: one of the many gates into the Mezquita, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. Anne and I stayed overnight in that Andalusian city during our free days in the middle of our UW-Sheboygan campus trip to Spain. The trip's base town was Segovia, but Spain's high-speed train system meant that we could have most of two days to explore a city far to the south. We chose Cordoba at least partly because our friend Aviva had recently been there and highly recommended it (including the Hotel Mezquita, only a block from the Mosque-Cathedral).
On our arrival in Cordoba we were surprised and delighted by the orange trees in full fruit lining every avenue and wider side street:
Those are folks from our group reaching up for oranges--several of our 40+ Segovia group had come with us. The oranges, though ripe, turned out to be quite bitter, and we later learned that they were soon to be harvested by the city and shipped to the UK for marmalade. Here are some other members of our Cordoba party:
As for the Mezquita: of all the places I have ever visited it was simply one of the most awesome--and I can't think of a better word. Built in the 700s and greatly expanded in the 800s and 900s, when Cordoba was a major city of the Muslim world, it was converted to a church after the "reconquering" of Cordoba in 1236 and--within the walls of the enormous structure, a large city block in size--redesigned over the centuries with Mudehar, Gothic and Renaissance features, while leaving many of the Islamic features. Even the best professional photographs give little sense (to me, anyhow) of how magnificent the place is--you really have to walk through it--get lost in it.
The Mezquita is entered from a courtyard filled with orange trees, and from which the bell tower is visible:
My camera was entirely inadequate to capture the dimply-lit interior. Here are a few glimpses of some of the Moorish designs:
You can walk around the walls of the Mezquita and see the various gates no longer in use. On the side pictured below, the ground slopes down toward the Guadalquivir River.
Here's a closer view of the San Idlefonso Gate:
And here is one side of the building from a greater distance:
The Mezquita has handsome archways as well as doorways. This one is the Puerta del Perdon:
A short distance from the Mezquita are the gardens of the Cordoba Alcazar:
We spent a good deal of time down in the gardens. The weather was perhaps in the mid 60s.
The garden had lemon trees--with fruit sweeter than the oranges, I found when I sampled one--as well as more orange trees. Here are some more photos of the waters:
Someone took a picture of Anne and me; while we were there:
Here's one more view of the gardens with their citrus trees:
And here is a pebble-mosaic patio at one end of the gardens.
Cordoba has an ancient Jewish Quarter with narrow streets. I took no pictures of the streets themselves, but I have one of a 16th-Century mansion on a side alley. I frankly have no memory of it, but the Internet tells me that it is now a Bullfighting Museum, and I see from newer photos that the ivy has been removed and the loggia has been glassed in.
We visited the Cordoba Synagogue, built in 1315 and amazingly well preserved despite the centuries gone by since Spain's expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Here are some of the spectacular designs of the interior walls:
After our return from Cordoba our group as a whole made one more excursion from Segovia: to Toledo, south of Madrid. I'll show some photos of that city, plus a few more of Segovia and some from back in the States that spring in my next post.
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