Cordoba

We spent about 10 days in Cordoba and attended a worldschooling pop-up hub while there. Even though it rained the whole week, the other families in the hub were great and we had an amazing time. And, we absolutely fell in love with this town – probably our favourite place in Spain!

We started the week of worldschooling activities with a murder mystery scavenger hunt. This was an excellent introduction to the town as it sent us from one important landmark to another, providing us history and information along the way. During the week, we visited many of the major landmarks of the city – not letting the pouring rain deter us too much (although we did miss out on the Alcazar and gardens and opted for sitting inside with friends drinking wine instead).

Images from around the city:

Cordoba was the capital of the Iberian peninsula when the Moors ruled over it, which is why there is a Muslim influence throughout the city’s architecture. On the outskirts of Cordoba stands the ancient caliphate city where the caliph had his palace. It is now just ruins, but the movie in the museum gives you a good idea of what the ancient city would have looked like during its heyday.

Before and during Muslim rule, there was also a thriving Jewish community. This lasted until the Spanish Inquisition forced the Jews to ‘disappear’. We did a tour of the Jewish museum and the tour guide said that actually, that building (instead of the nearby Synagogue) was used after the Spanish Inquisition, and Jews found clever ways of hiding their ‘Jewishness’ as opposed to actually converting to Christianity. (Below are images from the Synagogue and Jewish museum)

The Cathedral-Mosque is the crowning of glory of Cordoba. I still vividly remember it from when I visited previously as a teenager and I was really excited to see it again – it didn’t disappoint. It truly is an amazing building.

The Mosque was built first using remnants of an older church / temple. The mosque was then expanded and doubled in size, then, the cathedrale was built into the middle of it.

After Cordoba, we had to drive back to Belgium in order to complete some administrative tasks. We decided to break up the drive and stop for a couple of days in Carcasonne.