The undisputed highlight of Cordoba (and arguably of Southern Spain) is the magnificent ‘Mezquita’, the former Great Mosque that since the Spanish reconquest of 1236 has served as Cordoba Cathedral, a unique marriage of styles and cultures and one of the World’s greatest architectural masterpieces.

The site dates back to Roman times, the pagan temples giving way to the first Visigothic cathedral which stood here in the 7th and 8th centuries. After the Islamic conquest the church was divided between Christians and Muslims until the Christian side was brought for conversion into the first mosque. In the following centuries the mosque was rebuilt and enlarged in ever more magnificent form up to around 987.

The Great Mosque continued to function until the Spanish reconquest of 1246 when it was converted back to Christian use as the city’s cathedral; luckily the beauty of the Islamic architecture was recognized and largely respected, though new additions were made in various places adding further stylistic layers to the complex, initially in gothic, then Renaissance and latterly Baroque styles.

The biggest alteration came at the end of the Middle Ages when a more recognizable cathedral structure was erected over the centre of the multi-aisled former prayer hall. Begun as a gothic church, it was completed as a largely Renaissance structure with rich vaulting and a low dome over the crossing. Though it required the removal of many of the superb arcades and columns to erect it, the structure’s impact is less apparent from within as one might expect, since it has few lower walls, literally growing from the Moorish colonnades.