Córdoba Mezquita -- Blessings Arch

At first, the Umayyads rented half of the cathedral which stood on this spot. Eventually they bought it and tore it down. In its place they erected the mosque in one year starting around 786. (Flat-roofed worship halls are extremely simple buildings and can be erected fairly quickly. By contrast, many cathedrals as important to Christians as Cordoba’s Friday Mosque was to Muslims have taken centuries to complete.) Its 11 aisles were all the same width except for a slightly wider center aisle which opened below this Mudejar arch at the end of the walkway shown in the picture below.

The Cathedral nave, added during Emperor Charles V’s reign around 1520, rises in the background. The Muslim worshipers would face down this aisle to their focal point southeast towards Mecca. The Christian cathedral superimposed on their space provides an axis perpendicular to the Muslim orientation.

The red and white double Mudejar arch above suggests what the visitor will see inside. Note that it is slightly wider than the other arches, corresponding to the central aisle inside being 26 feet wide while the 10 other aisles were about 15% smaller. Obviously whoever blinded the arch at left did so with little reverence for this iconic building.

Let's now journey inside by clicking here.

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