Based on the music played at the nighttime visit

Much of the music featured in this publication is used during the nighttime visit to the Cathedral-Mosque. As night falls, the music sleeps and dreams, bearing witness to prayer.

THE SPLENDOUR OF FAITH, SEVENTEEN CENTURIES OF ARCHITECTURE FOR PRAYER.

The basilica, mosque and cathedral emerged over time on an ancient site in Córdoba. Their fortress-like walls embraced the Visigoth Basilica, transforming it into the Aljama Mosque and the Catholic heart of the city. A space that has survived for centuries with the same use due to the exceptional sacred architecture it contains. A space that contains the most beautiful confluence of artistic styles, reusing previously used elements that are redefined in the newness of the moment. Its inspiration comes from the art of Rome, Syria, Byzantium, Gothia and al Andalus, incorporating formal elements of the Gothic, Mudejar, Renaissance and Baroque styles. A building that sums up the history of Spain’s architecture, containing prayer in various languages and different liturgies, all in the same pursuit of the mystery of the sacred. A holy space that has survived four centuries of Paleo-Christian faith, five centuries of Muslim faith, and eight centuries of Catholicism, and has always been the soul of Córdoba.

Hosius, 256-357, was bishop of Córdoba and advisor to Emperor Constantine I (d. 337) during the first Christian community in the Roman patrician colony of Corduba, which was sacked by the Vandals in 411. The Hispano-Roman Christians maintained their Trinitarian faith at the basilica of the martyr St. Acisclus (d.304). The spoils of pagan temples were used to build Christian churches. During the time of Visigoth Arianism, from the year 507, worship was affected by the Byzantine conquest of the eastern peninsula, circa 550. In Córdoba, Nicene rite prayers were said until the city was taken in 572 by the Arian king Leovigild (d.586). In 584, Leovigild won back Córdoba from his rebellious first-born son Hermenegild (d.585), who had converted to Catholicism and become the duke of Baetica. Reccared, his second son, reigned and converted to Catholicism along with the entire court and the Arian bishops during the Third Council of Toledo in 589. From then until the year 711, the Hispanic Catholic Rite of Toledo was at its height in Córdoba, in the episcopal complex of St. Vincent, from the 5th - 7th centuries. Everything changed in 716 when, after the Muslim invasion of the peninsula in 711, Córdoba was proclaimed the capital of the province, under the rule of the Damascus Caliphate, marking the beginning of the Mozarab era for Cordoban Christians.

HE ALJAMA MOSQUE

Work on the mosque began in 786 under the Umayyad ruler Abd al Rahman I (d. 788), after the unification of al-Andalus, which in 756 had been pronounced an independent emirate from Baghdad. It was built on the Christian Basilica complex at the behest of the governor Yusuf al-Zihri. It is modelled on the early mosques of the East in Damascus and Jerusalem, a rectangular space with a landscaped courtyard and prayer hall with a 'forest' of 110 columns and 11 naves perpendicular to the qibla. Roman and Gothic columns support the double horseshoe and semicircular arches made of white stone and red brick. Materials from earlier buildings reflected overlapping cultures and were a symbol of political and religious power and cohesion.

Hisham I, who reigned from 788-796, added the minaret in the courtyard wall, the ablution pavilion, and the women’s gallery. Al Hakam I, 796-822, lost the Hispanic March to the son of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and the Asturians regained Lisbon. In 832, Abd al Rahman II, 792-852, embarked on the first expansion to the south with 8 bays and 80 new columns, which his son Muhammad I, 852-886, completed. Muhammad I also partially demolished the qibla wall and created the maqsura, a space for the emir and his court. This was the time of the first great cultural heyday, with the musician Ziryab (d.857) who brought changes to court customs, and the introduction of the Maliki legal school. It was also the time of St Eulogius (d.859) and the Mozarabic martyrs of Córdoba.

Abd al Rahman III, 912-961, the first caliph from 929, enlarged the courtyard, adding galleries on the sides and a new minaret. He built the Palatine city of Medina Azahara. Al Hakam II, 961-976, completed the luxurious second expansion with 12 bays and 130 new columns. He created a new double qibla with a treasury to the left of the mihrab and four innovative domes to let light into the maqsura, as well as a caliphal dome of interlacing multifoil arches and horseshoe arches in the upper section. He brought in Byzantine craftsmen to build the triumphal arch with gold mosaics covering the mihrab and a niche with a venerated dome. Hisham II, 976-1013, was eclipsed by the ruler Almanzor, who destroyed Santiago, Barcelona, Pamplona, and the Kingdom of León. Almanzor (d.1002) commissioned the third expansion of the mosque towards the east between 987 and 991, with 8 new naves and 266 columns, also enlarging the courtyard adding new ablution rooms and cisterns. The great aljama mosque remained unchanged during the Taifa kingdoms 1031-1070, under the Almoravids 1080-1120 and under the Almohads 1162-1212. Alfonso VII of León conquered Córdoba in 1146, but only for a few days. He set up an altar in the mosque where Christian rites were celebrated for the first time in history.

CATHEDRAL OF CÓRDOBA

Ferdinand III of León and Castile (d.1252) finally took Córdoba on June 29, 1236, and the mosque was consecrated as the Cathedral of Santa María (the Virgin Mary). A main chapel was built under the lantern of al Hakam II, and a baptistry was installed, along with numerous chapels along the inside of the walls. Ferdinand’s son Alfonso X (d.1284), created the Royal Chapel and Chapter House in the nave of St Clement in 1262. In 1377, Henry II, and in 1390, John I, built a funerary qubba with Nasrid Mudejar plasterwork for the burial of Castilian kings, as well as the Gothic Chapel of Villaviciosa, which was later adorned with an altarpiece and 15th-century mahogany choir stalls, serving as the main chapel until 1607.

In 1526, during the reign of Emperor Charles I, the architect Hernán Ruiz was commissioned to build a new cathedral with a chancel, transept, and choir inside the

mosque, occupying the space of 63 columns. It was finished in 1607 with Gothic vaults, a dome and a balanced Renaissance aesthetic that complements the horseshoe arches. The minaret was surrounded by a bell tower, completed in 1617, which was modified in 1755 after the Lisbon earthquake. The main altarpiece was completed in 1643 and the mahogany choir stalls in 1753. The organs were completed in 1675 and 1700 and the gilded bronze grilles in 1759.

In 1984, the sublime Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.