Cordoba

Another day another beautiful city in Spain.  Cordoba, the birthplace of Maimonides, and home of the Mezquita-Catedral, one of the largest cathedrals in the world.  The site was originally a small Visigoth church.  When the Muslims conquered Andalus in 711 a mosque and church shared the space.  But in 784 the Muslims took over and built the Grand Mosque, one of the largest and most beautiful examples of Moorish architecture.    Christians again took over in the 13th century and a church was constructed inside the mosque.  It’s a fascinating clash of styles as the Moorish inner arches with their splendid marble columns topped with red and white arches surround the Christian altar with its images of Christ and various saints.

It was a hot (very at 85 degrees, after snow a few days ago) day and we got a bit lost wandering the twisty streets.  There’s a beautiful arch and bridge built by the Romans and we walked over and had a delightful tapas lunch.  By the time we got back to Seville, however, I was feeling a bit woozy from the heat.  A nap and all was OK.

Moses Maimonides, one of my heroes, the influential 12th century Sephardic-Jewish philosopher, was born in Cordoba.  His family fled to Cairo when he was a child because of threats of persecution.  Nevertheless the city seems to have embraced him.  There is a Maimonides street, Maimonides souvenirs, a Maimonides Hotel, a statue and on and on.   The old Jewish quarter is near the Cathedral which natives point to a sign that the Jews were in the mainstream in the middle ages.  There remains a Sephardic synagogue that now functions as a museum.  I have mixed feelings about synagogues that are now museums.  It’s nice that they’re preserved, but sad that they indicate a failure of the Jews to survive in these areas.  I had the same feeling in Budapest among other places.