At the S. end of the Paseo, near the church of San Nicolás de la Villa (Pl. C, 2), with its octagonal tower, once a minaret, we take the Calle del Conde de Gondomar to the left, and then, just short of the Hotel Suizo, follow the Calle de Jesús María (Pl. C, 2, 3) to the right. This street, continued by the Calle de Angel de Saavedra, the Calle Pedregosa, and the Calle Céspedes, leads to the S. to the cathedral.
The **Cathedral (Pl. C, 3, 4; adm., see p. [68]), once the Mesjid al-Jâmia, or ‘chief mosque’ of the city, one of the greatest in the world, and still called La Mezquita, is the grandest and noblest creation of Moorish architecture in Spain. The mosque was founded by Abderrahmân I. in 785, on the site of a Christian church, and was intended to form a great religious centre for all believers in Spain, and to induce the great stream of western pilgrims to repair to Cordova instead of to Mecca. A model for the edifice was found in the arcaded courts and colonnaded halls of the Egyptian mosques (such as the Amru Mosque, p. [460]). The original edifice contained only ten rows of columns, which formed eleven longitudinal and twelve transverse aisles. The central aisle was a little wider than the others and ended in a Mihrâb, or prayer-recess, designed to mark the direction of Mecca (Kibla). As the building soon proved inadequate for the population, which was rapidly increased by accessions from the East, Abderrahmân II., in 833–48, added seven transepts on the S. side and erected a new mihrâb. A further prolongation by fourteen transepts was effected by AlHâkim II. (961–76), after which the magnificent third mihrâb (mihrâb nuevo) formed the termination of the building. Though the mosque was now considered the finest in the Occident, rivalling the Kairuin mosque at Fez, it failed to satisfy the ambition of Al-Mansûr (p. [69]). As the sloping ground on the S. side precluded extension in that direction, this governor, in 987–90, caused seven new rows of columns to be raised on the E. side, thus increasing the number of aisles to nineteen, but destroying the symmetrical plan of the building, which required the mihrâb, or holy of holies, to be in line with the main axis of the building.
After the conquest of Cordova by the Christians in 1236 (p. [69]) the mosque was dedicated to the Virgin (Virgen de la Asunción). The Spaniards at first confined their operations to walling up most of the doors and then fitting up side-chapels along the walls. As the needs of the Christian ritual, however, soon demanded the construction of a choir (primitivo coro), part of the second mihrâb and the adjoining aisles had in 1260 to be demolished. Still greater damage was done by the insertion of the Renaissance choir in the centre of the building, and of the Sala Capitular, or sacristy, in the middle of the S. wall.
The Ground Plan forms an immense rectangle of about 575 by 427 ft., of which fully a third is occupied by the court. Court and church are surrounded by a fortress-like battlemented wall which, on three sides, rests on massive substructions. Nothing indicates the object of the building except the rich portals, flanked with niches and windows, and, on the N. side, adjoining the Calle del Obispo Herrero, the Campanario or bell-tower (305 ft. high), which was substituted for the Moorish minaret in 1593. Ascent of the tower interesting (adm. 25 c.; 255 steps).
The *Puerta del Perdón, the main gateway, restored in 1377 on the model of the gate of that name at Seville (p. [63]), adjoins the clock-tower and leads into the—
*Patio de los Naranjos (‘orange-court’), once the court of the mosque, where the faithful performed their ablutions. Light and spacious, yet well-shaded by orange and palm-trees, watered by five fountains, and always enlivened with groups of quiet visitors, it presents a typical scene of Oriental repose. The avenues were originally laid out in line with the colonnades in the interior of the mosque. The old arcades of the court (claustro) are now walled up on the N. side. Of the nineteen gates on the S. side, two only, the Puerta de las Palmas, the chief entrance to the cathedral, and the small doorway of the eastmost colonnade are now open.
The *Interior of the Cathedral, in spite of its moderate height (37 ft.), and in spite of much disfigurement, is singularly impressive. In the subdued light the forest of columns seems endless. They average 13 ft. only in height, and are of the most diverse materials, many of them having been brought from late-Roman buildings or from Christian churches. The capitals show a marvellous wealth of design; their bases are buried in the pavement, the level of which has been raised by 11–14 inches in the course of centuries. The vast number of horseshoe arches which connect the columns, in the direction of the length of the church, and the upper semicircular arches resting on projecting pillars impart peculiar life to the building. The painted timber-ceilings of the different roofs have been restored in their original style. The sumptuous mosaic pavement has disappeared, and so too have the countless chandeliers and lamps which burned perpetually during the Moorish period.
The wealth of artistic decoration was lavished chiefly on the mihrâbs, the first of which has been entirely destroyed. The second and third were each provided with a vestibule and two side-rooms, part of which was formerly shut off to form the Caliph’s maksûra (or court-platform). The vestibule of the *Second Mihrâb, with its superb shell-vaulting, still exists.
The **Third Mihrâb is considered a marvel of art. The front is adorned with two rows of columns, one above the other, and with double toothed arches. The vestibule, now Capilla de San Pedro, and the prayer-niche itself, a kind of heptagonal chapel of barely 13 ft. in diameter, exhibit the most elaborate efforts of early-Moorish art, especially in the rich marble plinth and in the coloured glass mosaics executed by Byzantine artists. The toothed arches of the windows and the boldly interlacing arches of the superb dome point to a later high development of Moorish art.
Of the Christian Additions to the church one of the most noteworthy is the sumptuous Capilla Mudéjar de San Fernando, to the left of the second mihrâb, erected over the old royal vault. The *Renaissance Choir (Coro and Capilla Mayor), designed by Hernán Ruiz the Elder in 1523, was completed, with many alterations, in 1627. Though only 256 by 79 ft. in size, it is crowded with no less than 63 columns, and it rises high above the roof of the mosque. It is considered a masterpiece of the plateresque style, but has ruined the original symmetry of the mosque.