TraveLog - Cordoba

The way from Granada to Cordoba took about 2 hours. We stayed in a very interesting hotel in the Casa de las Pavas, a 16th/17th century typical Cordoban house just a few steps from the Great Mosque. I liked it so much, but my husband was complaining a bit about poor service and the dead plants in the balconies. Nevertheless I enjoyed the touch of a real marble and the general aura of authenticity in this house with a number of patios and the galleries in the upper floors. Clearly it cannot be compared to a typical 5-stars hotel, even if the water of the pool, if it can be called swimming pool at all, was a bit suspicious. But we swam in it and it was a great feeling.



The Mosque made an unforgettable impression on me. Maybe because it's a low, horizontal construction, it seemed to me bigger than others, bigger even than the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It's a strange feeling to imagine all this space full of praying people. My dream was indeed to pray there, but for sure it would be rather a problematic issue. By the way, I didn't see anybody praying, nor Muslim nor Christian. Somehow I feel also the Christians may not feel at ease there. I noticed the Church is rather "letting down" the Cathedral of Cordoba. At least I got this impression compared to the strongly defensive attitude in the Cathedral of Granada, where I was rather annoyed by the oppressive presence of guards, trying to force upon the visitants what they considered as "respectful" behaviour. They didn't importune me personally, but they gave me a strong and sad impression that Spanish Cristianity is somehow trying to survive where this survival is far from natural and obvious. But on the other hand, maybe I had expected to see more Muslim visitants in such a place. There were not many, but in general in the moment when I happened to visit it, the monument was half empty.

Architectonically, few Christian elements in it make any positive "multicultural" impression. Most are just an alien intromission, hurting the harmony of the whole. But there are some places when the Gotic comes as an organic developement of the striped arcs.






Today we go to Madinat al-Zahra, a ruined palace once dedicated to a beloved woman. I look forward to see it and also to discover more of the love story hidden behind this grandiose idea. Who was Zahra?