Andalucia-- The Perfect Escape from Winter

I know that I've been a little naughty the past week and haven't posted anything new, but I have a very good excuse! My classmates and I went to Andalucia, a southwestern province/region for the entire week and I had hardly any internet access at the places we were staying. That being said, I have a ton to talk about! Here are some highlights of my favorite place that we visited:

La Mezquita

Endless Arches

Cordoba is a small but unique town nestled by the snake-like Guadalquivir River with an immense history behind it. Cordoba was founded by Romans who built a bridge that would still be functional in the 21st century as well as temple to the Gods with marble pillars close to the river bank. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Visigoths (Germanic nomads) took over the city for a few centuries until the Muslims came in and brought a few good ideas with them. Starting in the 700s, the Muslims decided to convert the Roman temple into a sacred mosque, or as the Spaniards say "mezquita." The Mezquita has a courtyard orchard of what now consists of mostly orange trees, but it originally consisted of palm trees. Through the main arches (which are now closed but would have been wide open) are the ancient Roman pillars with an added decoration of limestone palm leaves on top to mimic the palms in the courtyard. The symbolism is that God, represented by nature, and man, represented by the pillars, have come together in the same location. The open arches allowed for sunlight to enter the mosque horizontally from the North and shine toward Mecca while illuminating everything in its path. Unfortunately the arches to the outside have now been closed, which makes the interior very dark and awful for pictures.

Holy of Holies

Despite the lack of light, I was absolutely in awe as I entered La Mezquita because the pillars seem like they could go on for infinity, which is what the Muslims were going for. The pillars are color coordinated by alternating between black and pink marbles to lead up to the Holy of Holies. The cold stone and colorful arches with a very, very simple layout give a different mood than other religious buildings, for instance a Catholic cathedral.

Speaking of Catholics, Cordoba was conquered by Christians in the early 1200s and by the Renaissance there were literally no Muslims left in Andalucia. However the people of Cordoba loved the beauty of the mosque and sought to preserve it. It wasn't until Carlos V's reign in the 1500s that things started to change. During that time, a new bishop came into town and he hated the Mosque because it was Islamic. Contrary to what the people wanted, he asked permission of Carlos V to destroy the center of La Mezquita in order to construct a Catholic cathedral on the inside and allow for Christian worship in the mosque. Carlos, who had never seen the mosque, ignorantly gave the bishop permission and agreed to visit Cordoba three years into the building process to see what the bishop had in mind. Upon arriving to Cordoba, Carlos was disgusted at himself for allowing the destruction of such a beautiful monument. Today the center of the mosque is a cathedral in the Baroque style; In fact while I was in the chapel I could not even tell that I was in a mosque, and while I was in a mosque I had no idea I was in a cathedral!