June 7, 2009
We started the day on the Roman Bridge.
From their we headed off to the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos. This castle was built on top of ruins and at points they could be seen emerging from below.
Their were also some really nice gardens that accompanied the castle.
After the Alcazar we proceeded over to the Great Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba (photos). The original Mosque covered a quarter of the area that the current Mosque sits on.
Over a series of two centuries three subsequent additions were built expanding the Mosque to its current size. Throughout the additions the hypostyle columns were kept in rhythm with minor changes in the methods of construction responding to the wealth of the region at the time.
The last addition was by far the largest but was also while the region was declining in power so instead of using bricks they just painted the brick parts of the arches red.
When the region was conquered by the Christians they took the Mosque and converted it to a Cathedral. The cathedral was built within the existing hypostyle halls sharing walls.
The greatest difference is in the light of the two buildings with the Mosque being quite dark while the Cathedral is extremely bright.
There are many points where the two interact in an interesting and sometimes illogical ways.
The cathedral itself was quite impressive itself but it was the interaction between the Mosque and Cathedral that made this building so intresting.
The day in Cordoba ended at the Mosque/Cathedral and we headed back to the train station.