Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic Centre Of Cordoba, Inscribed 1984), Great Mosque Begun 785 And Expanded Four Times, Consecrated As A Cathedral In 1236 With A Renaissance Nave Inserted From 1523 · Cordoba, Andalusia

A tenth-century mosque with a sixteenth-century cathedral built inside it, both still standing, and that sentence is the whole reason to come. When Cordoba was the largest city in Europe its great mosque was expanded four times until it covered a field of red and white double arches carried on hundreds of columns, many of them robbed from Roman and Visigothic buildings, so no two are quite alike. After the reconquest the building was consecrated rather than demolished, and in the sixteenth century a full cathedral nave was cut out of the middle and raised through the roof. The result should be a wreck and instead it is the most extraordinary interior in Spain: you walk through a low dim forest of arches that runs away in every direction, and then the ceiling opens a hundred feet above a baroque choir. Charles V, who authorised it, is said to have regretted it on seeing it. Go early, when entry is free and the forest is empty.

Calle Cardenal Herrero 1, Cordoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: a FREE UNTICKETED EARLY MORNING WINDOW on weekdays, then general ticketed opening through the day with SEPARATE SUMMER AND WINTER SCHEDULES and a shorter Sunday because of services. The BELL TOWER runs its own timed slots with small numbers and frequently sells out by mid-morning. Night visits run on limited evenings. Sections close for Mass without notice. Confirm the free window first, since it changes.

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