The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: one building, two histories

The short answer

The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba carries two names because it carries two histories in one structure. It was built as a mosque and enlarged three times; since 1236 it has been a cathedral, and the Bishop of Córdoba's welcome letter on the cathedral's site says Catholic worship has continued in it without interruption for almost eight centuries.[9]

Most of what follows is the cathedral's own account of its building, from its history pages, with UNESCO's decisions alongside.[11][1] XTOUR has not read independent scholarship on the building, so this is the owner's account of its monument, attributed as such.

Before the mosque

The cathedral's history page dates remains of the Visigothic basilica of San Vicente on the site to the 6th century, and says Muslim worship first took place in that old basilica.[1] Its page on the first mosque says the builders reused Roman and Visigothic materials, including those of San Vicente.[2]

The mosque and its enlargements

The cathedral's history pages describe four Umayyad building campaigns and a new minaret.[1]

• Abd al-Rahman I, first emir of al-Andalus from 756, built the aljama, or congregational, mosque towards the end of his life; the cathedral's timeline dates it 786–788.[1] The cathedral's page on it describes eleven naves running perpendicular to the qibla wall, on a plan inspired by the mosques of Damascus and al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.[2]
• Abd al-Rahman II, who governed from 822 to 852, made the first enlargement, dated 833–848 in the timeline.[1] The cathedral's page on it says the prayer hall grew by eight naves to the south and that a new qibla wall replaced the original one.[3]
• Abd al-Rahman III did not enlarge the prayer hall, according to the cathedral's page on his work, but he replaced the first minaret, built by Hisham I, with a new one.[4] The timeline dates the new minaret 951–952 and says that, according to sources, it reached 47 metres.[1]
• Al-Hakam II made the second enlargement, dated 962–966.[1] The cathedral's page describes it as work marked by innovation, richness and creativity, with plant motifs, marble and mosaics, built out to the south towards the maqsura and mihrab and lit by four skylights.[5]
• Almanzor, who the history page says was appointed hajib under the young caliph Hisham II in 978, made the third enlargement, dated 991–994, towards the east because the river prevented building further south.[1] The cathedral's page on it says the carving of the arches' voussoirs was imitated in paint and that the eight new naves cost the building its traditional axis.[6]

From mosque to cathedral

According to the bishop's letter on the cathedral's site, King Fernando III took the building in 1236 and handed it to the city's Christian community.[9] The history page's timeline calls 1236 the second dedication, with the cathedral's dedication Mass on 29 June 1236. It lists a first dedication in 1146, when, it says, a Christian army entered the city and the archbishop of Toledo celebrated Mass in the mosque in the presence of King Alfonso VII.[1]

The cathedral's bell tower page says the former minaret was turned into a bell tower after the Christian conquest and stayed in use until 1589, when an earthquake affected its structure; a new tower, to plans by Hernán Ruiz III, was then built around part of the caliphal remains.[7]

The Christian additions

The cathedral's history page names a Gothic nave of 1489, under Bishop Íñigo Manrique, as the first great Christian work on the building.[1] Its page on the main chapel and transept says Bishop Alonso Manrique decided to build a new main chapel, begun in 1523 by Hernán Ruiz I and continued by his son Hernán Ruiz II, and that Juan de Ochoa later completed the transept and choir vaults.[8] The timeline dates Ochoa's dome and choir vault to 1599–1607.[1]

Why XTOUR uses both words

The building's current use is a cathedral. The cathedral's rules page says its main purpose is to be a Catholic church and that it is the main church in Córdoba, open also to tourist and cultural visits.[10] XTOUR therefore treats it as one place, classed by that current use as a church.

XTOUR keeps both words in the name because both histories belong to the one building, and describing it as only a mosque or only a cathedral would leave part of that history out. It does not split it into a mosque record and a cathedral record: that would turn one structure into two places, and neither would be true on its own.

World Heritage

The cathedral's history page says UNESCO declared the Mosque-Cathedral a World Heritage Site on 2 November 1984.[1] In 1994 the World Heritage Committee approved extending the site to include its surroundings and adopted the name "The Historic Centre of Cordoba", according to UNESCO's decision record.[11]

Where the cathedral's pages disagree

The bishop's page says the building was built for Muslim worship in the 9th century.[9] The history page's timeline dates the first mosque, under Abd al-Rahman I, to 786–788, in the 8th century, and places only the first enlargement in the 9th.[1] XTOUR follows the history page's account of the building campaigns and records the difference.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR has not read the World Heritage nomination file, archaeological reports or academic histories of the building, and it takes no position on how the building should be named beyond the name it uses here. It does not describe what can be seen inside today, room by room; the cathedral's own pages on the building do that.

For planning a visit, see the guide to visiting the Mosque-Cathedral, and for Córdoba as a base, the Córdoba destination page.