Explore Cordoba

A taste of Cordoba

Córdoba is one of the most extraordinary historical cities in Spain — the medieval capital of Moorish Iberia and once the largest city in Europe, where in the 10th century around 500,000 people lived in surprisingly sophisticated peace as the seat of the Caliphate of Córdoba. The headline sight is the Mezquita-Catedral, the city's mosque-cathedral and one of the most architecturally astonishing buildings in the world: an 8th–10th century Great Mosque with a forest of around 850 candy-striped red-and-white horseshoe-arched columns, with a complete 16th-century Renaissance cathedral hammered into the centre after the Christian reconquest (the Emperor Charles V, who had authorised the modification, reportedly regretted it when he saw the result and famously said, 'You have built what you or others might have built anywhere else, but you have destroyed what was unique in the world'). The dramatic Roman bridge, the medieval Judería (Jewish quarter) with its tiny Sephardic synagogue, and the cool flower-filled patios of the Old Town (UNESCO-listed; the Patios festival in early May is a brilliant time to see them all) round out the essentials. Don't miss the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (with brilliantly preserved Roman mosaics) and the spectacular Medina Azahara archaeological site 8km outside town (the ruined caliphal palace city, also UNESCO).