The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba is the Catholic Christian cathedral of the Diocese of Córdoba. It originally was a Catholic Christian church built by the Visigoths. Later, during the Middle Ages and during Islamic rule, it was converted to a mosque. After the Reconquista (1492), it was made a Catholic Christian church once again. The cathedral is regarded as one of the most accomplished monuments of Moorish architecture. Since the early 2000s, Spanish Muslims have lobbied the Roman Catholic Church to allow them to pray in the Cathedral but this campaign has been repeatedly rejected, both by the church authorities in Spain and by the Vatican.
What strikes me about this Mosque-Cathedral is this. As intent as the Spaniards were to rid the region of muslims during the reconquista, they could not (I suppose) bring themselves to destroy such a magnificent structure, so immense in size. Instead, what they did was to resurrect a magnificent cathedral within the mosque and then to alter (as much as possible) any evidence of the Islamic faith ... but not entirely. It's such an interesting juxtaposition of one culture upon another. The result is magnificent. I hope the pictures below illustrate this.
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