Spain Photo Guide:

       Cordoba's Mezquita

       Overview     Best Places to Visit 

Looking through the Islamic designed arch and across the Orange Tree Courtyard, you can see the Cathedral climbing above the roofline of the Mosque

There are many outstanding features in the Mezquita, but it is renowned for its extensive grid  of  columns capped with eye-catching  brick-striped arches.

When Spain was reconquered by Christians during the thirteenth century, the mosque was used for Catholic services.  In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries  the Santa Maria Mayor Cathedral, a tall, Baroque affair, was built inside the Mezquita.  It is this concept and conflict of a church within a  Mosque in Cordoba and a Mosque within a church (Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul that sets the scene for Stephen O' Shea's interesting book "Sea of Faith", in which the author discusses Islam and Christianity in the medieval Mediterranean world.

Granada was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate  in the western Mediterranean and the city  was regarded as the most beautiful and cultured in Europe. During the Caliphate's existence,  Granada housed several hundred mosques.  None were as great or as beautiful as the Mezquita.  It should not be missed.

Below is one of the original gates leading to the Mezquita.    The building's elegant architecture and great beauty make Granada's Mezquita one of the most popular attractions in Spain.

.