Museum with No
Frontiers Guide to the Great Mosque of Cordoba
Panorama
Camera
Discover Islamic Art website on Cordoba Mosque
360 Panorama Camera of the Cordoba Mosque
Floor plan of the Great Mosque of Cordoba
Pasted
from <http://archnet.org/library/images/one-image-large.jsp?location_id=1422&image_id=170816>
Great Mosque of Córdoba
ArchNet
Site ID
AS04121
Variant
Names
La
Mezquita, Mezquita-Catedral, Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba
Location
Córdoba, Spain
Client
'Abd
al-Rahman I, 'Abd al-Rahman II, al-Hakam, al-Mansur, Ferdinand III
Date
784-786;
961-976, 987, 16th c. chapel
Style/Period
The
Great Mosque of Cordoba was considered a wonder of the medieval world by both
Muslims and Christians. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was begun between 784 and
786 during the reign of 'Abd al-Rahman I, who escaped from Syria to the Iberian
Peninsula after his family was massacred by a rival political dynasty.
The
mosque's hypostyle plan, consisting of a rectangular prayer hall and an
enclosed courtyard, followed a tradition established in the Umayyad and Abbasid
mosques of Syria and Iraq. The system of
columns supporting double arcades of piers and arches with alternating red and
white arches or voussoirs is provides a striking effect. This pattern of alternating red and white
decorated arches was found on other Umayyad monuments such as the Great Mosque
of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock. It also emphasises 'Abd al-Rahman's
connection to the Umayyad dynasty, which had spread from Damascus to Andalusia
in Spain.
The
mosque was expanded by later rulers, which created vistas of columns and
arcades that create an effect of an illusion of a forest of stone. Outside of
the mosque this is also suggested by the rows of trees planted in the courtyard
(Patio de las Naranjas or Court of the Oranges).
The most
lavish interior ornament is concentrated in the maqsura, the prayer space
reserved for the ruler, which was commissioned by the caliph al-Hakam II. The
maqsura is visually separated from the rest of the prayer hall by screens
formed of elaborate intersecting polylobed arcades, an elegant variation on the
basic architectural theme set in the earliest incarnation of the mosque. These
screens emphasise the special status of the space, which is composed of three
domed bays in front of the mihrab.
After
conquering Cordoba in 1236, Ferdinand III king of Castile consecrated the Great
Mosque as the city's cathedral. The Christian population of Cordoba used the
former mosque with relatively minor changes for the next three hundred years.
In the early 16th century the Bishop and Canons of the cathedral proposed the
construction of a new cathedral, and proposed to demolish the mosque in order
to build it. The opposition of the townspeople to the proposed destruction of
the building led to the unprecedented decision, endorsed by the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V, to insert an entire Gothic "chapel" into the very
heart of the former Great Mosque. The result creates a rather awkward
juxtaposition between Gothic catherdral spires and the wide span of space
intended by the original mosque's layout.
Downloadable documents associated with this site
Prado-Vilar,
Francisco
|
1997
|
|
Khoury,
Nuha N
|
1996
|
|
Ruggles,
D
|
1990
|
Downloadable files associated with this site
Saeed
Arida
|
CAD
drawing(s)
|
2003
|
|
Saeed
Arida
|
line
drawing(s)
|
2003
|
Associated dictionary entry
Pasted
from <http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=31>
Court
of Oranges, Great Mosque of Cordoba
Interior
of the Great Mosque of Cordoba
