Alcázar of the Christian Monarchs

Why go

The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos is a walled fortress and palace in Córdoba, according to the city's tourism site, which describes an almost rectangular building of stone ashlar walls with four corner towers, named the Lions, Homage, Inquisition and Doves towers, rooms set around patios, and extensive gardens closing the complex. The same page says that when Ferdinand III took Córdoba in 1236 the building, part of the old caliphal palace, was in ruins, that Alfonso X began its restoration and that it was completed under Alfonso XI. It says the building later served as the seat of the Inquisition and, in the first half of the 19th century, as a prison, and it mentions a room of Roman mosaics and Arab-inspired baths. The tourism page says entry is allowed during the 30 minutes after the time printed on the ticket, not before or after. It is a different place from Seville's Real Alcázar.