Things to do in Córdoba

Córdoba was the seat of a caliphate. Around the year 1000 it was, by most counts, the largest city in western Europe. What survives from that is one building and a street plan.

Inside the Mezquita

Building began in 785, and three enlargements followed over two centuries. Some 856 columns remain of about 1,300. The red and white double arches above them are the image everyone knows.

From 1523 a cathedral was cut into the middle of the hall. Charles V is said to have regretted allowing it. The result is two religions inside one roof, which is the argument the building still generates.

The Judería and the patios

The lanes west of the mosque narrow to whitewash. This is the old Jewish quarter, and it is small enough to cross in ten minutes.

• The synagogue. Built in 1315, one of only three medieval ones left in Spain.
• Calleja de las Flores. A dead-end alley framing the bell tower, and the most photographed metre in town.
• The Alcázar of the Christian kings. A fourteenth-century fortress with terraced water gardens behind it.
• The Roman bridge. Sixteen arches over the Guadalquivir, of which only two are actually Roman. A twelfth-century tower guards the far end.

Courtyards are the local art form. Households plant them wall to wall in geraniums and open the gates for two weeks in May. UNESCO listed the contest in 2012.

Out of town

Medina Azahara lies eight kilometres west, a palace city begun in 936 and wrecked within eighty years. It was lost under fields until the twentieth century. About a tenth of it has been dug, and a museum sits below the ruins.

Practical

• Heat is not an exaggeration here. July and August regularly reach 45C, and the Spanish national record was set in this province. Sightseeing stops at midday.
• May. The patio contest and two ferias land in the same month, which makes it the best time to come and the hardest to find a bed. A handful of courtyards stay open all year.
• Trains. Madrid is about an hour and three quarters away, Seville about forty-five minutes. Many people visit without staying.
• Food. Salmorejo is the thick local cousin of gazpacho, served with egg and ham. Oxtail and Montilla wine are the other two local answers.
• Guides. A private walk of the old town costs about what a good dinner does, and self-guided routes cost a few euros.
• Timing the mosque. The first hour after opening is the quiet one. Later the hall fills and the arches are hard to photograph without a head in them.