The Córdoba mosque

[mount_oregano]

A photo of me outside the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin, formerly the Great Mosque of Córdoba, Spain. This doorway dates back to 987 A.D.

The extensive, beautiful arcades inside include a few columns from the Roman temple originally located on the site. It later held a Visigoth church before becoming a mosque, and finally, on orders of Emperor Carlos V, a cathedral. The Renaissance cathedral was sort of dropped into the middle of the mosque and looks seriously out of place.

The building is in the news:
http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/08/professor-newts-distorted-history.html

— Sue Burke

Comments

I wonder who the original Roman temple honored?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

All the good polytheists should probably get up in arms about those horrible profaning Visigoths who desecrated the Roman site to begin with, shouldn't we? ;)

Thanks for pointing me to Professor Newt's excellent blog entry. It's very informative.

Re: I wonder who the original Roman temple honored?

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

I can't find any information about who the temple could have honored. There is a large Roman temple partially reconstructed next to City Hall, but it's not near the mosque and no one seems to know whom it was dedicated to.

I found a map of the Roman city. The Roman bridge, which is still in use, leads to an old archway to enter the city close to the mosque/cathedral, and it seems to have a relief of Venus as the protectress of the city. The bridge and archway are connected to the city's main road, which passed through what is now the mosque and the heart of the old city. The site of the original, somewhat small Visigoth church is located alongside that road.

The Visigoths probably didn't profane the site, though. The Vandals came through first. I don't know what they did to Cordoba, but they leveled Seville. (Julius Cesar was an important mayor of Seville, by the way.) I imagine they did harm to Cordoba, too. The Vandals are the reason there are few Roman ruins in Seville, and there are few in Cordoba, as well. Then the Vandals left, and good riddance.

In contrast, the Visigoths, who came afterward, stayed and tried to govern, but they were so incompetent that when the Muslim Moors took over, they got a fairly warm welcome from the local populace in many place. The Moors were orderly and peaceful, and Visigoth war-ridden chaos had been unpleasant. The Visigoths actually converted from Arianism to Roman Catholicism in an attempt to make the locals accept them better, but that didn't smooth out all the problems.

http://www.cordoba24.info/english/html/temploromano.html
http://www.artencordoba.co.uk/ROMAN-CORDOBA/Roman-Cordoba-Monuments.html
http://www.artencordoba.co.uk/ROMAN-CORDOBA/img/PLANS/PLAN_CORDOBA_COLOGNE_PATRICIA.jpg

Drat those Vandals!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

The pesky things went and moved to central Illinois, you know, where they boast about themselves on signs at the city limits. I can't lay my cursor on one immediately, but here they are, bold as brass, including Lady Vandals. For shame!

Re: Drat those Vandals!

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

They look so innocent. But don't trust them around any crumbling empires.