Ragtag Saturday: a Temple, a Church, a Mosque, then a Church…

The Mezquita in Córdoba. It’s been a religious site since before recorded history. Ancient gods were worshipped here. Then the Visigoths came and built a church. Then, round about the 7th century, Christians and Muslims agreed to share this space, until the site was bought by Emir Abd al-Rahman in 784. This was the beginning of the vast place of worship we visited today.

When Córdoba was conquered for Christianity in 1236, the mosque became a Catholic cathedral. But it’s basically a gracious, imposing and immense Arab building with unsatisfactory Christian icing. To walk through the forest of Moorish columns, gazing upwards at Gothic ceilings is a slightly strange experience.

Spanish Muslims are petitioning for the right to worship here once more. With the Mezquita’s long-established history of shared worship and borrowed architecture, I hope they succeed.

Today’s Ragtag Challenge though, is ‘irridescence’. Let me show you a few irridescent details. https://wp.me/p9YcOU-zi

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

35 thoughts on “Ragtag Saturday: a Temple, a Church, a Mosque, then a Church…”

  3. We sang in the Mezquita last October. So surreal. Walking through a mosque to a space covered in Catholic icons. Then singing a swing version of “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel”. I could have spent all day in that one place.

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      2. It was amazing. That whole tour was amazing. We got to sing in THE Barcelona Cathedral and in the Santa Maria de Pi Cathedral (also Barcelona). We sang in churches perched on granite cliffs and buried in busy city streets. It will never, ever be forgotten. Thank you for taking me back!

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    2. Clare; you took and expressed my feelings exactly: A forest of pillars…. 🙂 I’ve never seen anything as amazing as this and would really, really love to see that with my own eyes! Eye candies par excellence.

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      1. I saw a model of the Mesquite today. Even though I’ve now seen it for real, I was unprepared for the sight of the endless quantity of pillars. It’s beyond astonishing.

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  9. Yes isn’t it amazing. My response to your flamenco post had I got round to it sooner (in A-V and slightly relaxed although the work emails are flooding in) would have been that we saw flamenco in a club in Córdoba. You’re so right,passionate and intense but curiously restrained. It wasn’t nearly as flamboyant as we were expecting and not our style of music but we had a great evening.

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    1. Yes, I would have said it wasn’t my thing either. But it was wonderful. Oddly though, we haven’t felt the need to repeat it in Córdoba.

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  12. Ignoring the ‘icing’ as you say and it’s an amazing expression of human creativity without including human or animal representations, isn’t it? Congrats too on another evocative photo minus tourists!

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    1. How do I do it? The place was crowded – at 08.30…. Yes, the Mezquita’s Moorish structure definitely scores on points. Some – luckily only some – of the Christian additions come under the heading of Catholic Tat.

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