The Mosque of Cordoba, built in 572 in Cordoba, Spain, is one of the few examples that combine both Islamic and Christian architecture attributes. This magnificent building is considered a symbol of multicultural respect and devotion, in terms of religion and architecture. This essay will analyse to what extent this statement is correct and what other purposes of assembling the building are mainly unknown. In order to do so, the background history of Southern Spain and the Mosque of Cordoba during nearly one millennium will be studied. It is also necessary to emphasize the use and significance of the building given throughout the years.
Spanish land has always been a place of historic conflicts due to all the available resources found in the area, such as climate, quality of land, strategic connections, etc. Before Muslims conquered Spain in 468, Christians (i.e. Hispano-Romans and Visigoths) inhabited the land since the 5th century AD. This period was predominated by very few and modest pieces of architecture such as basilicas, centrally planned buildings and rectangular halls .
With the conquest of Muslims, Spain was gifted with an improvement of the irrigation systems and agricultural success, such as introducing their horticulture methods, bringing new fruits and vegetables to the land. Arabs and North Africans also led and enhanced the Roman practice of dwelling in cities. They developed crafts such as tapestry making, pottery, craftsmen working in leather, metal, wood and wool, as well as music and family traditions. Also, it is important to take into account the numerous buildings that still remain, even lacking on some original features, a great symbol of Moorish architecture, such as the Mosque of Cordoba.
Spain was a melting point in that era, where elements from a diversity of extremely different cultures were joined. This entailed a great impact to the Christian population in Spain. Initially, Christians and Moors learnt how to coexist together, by respecting each other’s religion and culture overall. However, as the number of Arabs and Berbers increased, they took advantage of the situation and Christians became a minority. This lead to wars in different areas of the Peninsula, where they fought for the power, encouraged by their religious beliefs. As any war in the history of the world, this was devastating and caused a lot of violence and tragedies within the population.
At that time the Moorish had to prioritize their time on military campaigns rather than setting up new buildings. Therefore, they were contented with what they already found standing , meaning that most of the public buildings were renovated in order to follow their cultural architectural characteristics. This was the case of the Mosque of Cordoba, what started being a simple Friday Mosque in a former Christina church in the capital of the Caliphate.
Once Al-Andalus (new name given to Spain) was recovered from the tragedy of the war, the Emir Abdar-Rahman (I) chose to impose his power amongst the population and build a new Emir’s Palace . Taking advantage of the hard economic and moral situation of the Christians after the war, he bought a piece of land in the banks of the river Guadalquivir land from the Christians congregation . Only one year later, he ordered to expand the Friday Mosque from its original location until it laid directly adjacent to his Palace . Once built, the Mosque of Cordoba was the most important building in the city. It was a place where the habitants of Cordoba could search for peace, faith and stability. This piece of architecture still remains one of the most symbolic and biggest Islamic monuments in the world. However, the main reason for Abdar-Rahman (I) to construct The Mosque of Cordoba might not have been his religious and artistic interests. In fact, the Emir appreciated the vision of a new Western Empire , being the Mosque a perfect symbol to proclaim the presence of his dynasty . Moreover, the sermons preached on Fridays in the Mosque, where every adult male believer was obliged to attend, were not only about religious topics, but also political. For instance, the Mosque was used for political proclamations such as the ruler’s names.
After multiple attempts by the Christians to conquer Cordoba, Fernando III took benefit from the political instability of Cordoba and conquered it in June 1236. It took no longer than one week for the Christians to start using this space for their Catholic purposes. However, it was not until 1523, when the economy of Spain was stabilized, that king Charles V ordered the construction of the Cathedral. The location chosen was the very heart of the former Mosque, which meant demolishing the centre of the edifice, where all the reforms throughout the occupation of Muslims were made.
The reformation of the Mosque into a Cathedral did not happen due to a lack of spaces for the Christians to pray and fulfil their faith. In fact, if this was the reason, Charles V and previous kings may have not waited almost 300 years to gather funds to build a space of prayer, which is fundamental for the practice of Christianity. One could argue that the purpose of having the cathedral built within the Mosque was a sign of architectural appreciation and respect of the Islamic culture. This takes us back to the main reason why the Mosque was built in the first place. Such a magnificent building was the perfect indicator of power and authority of the city as well as the person governing it. Moreover, when Charles V ordained the reconstruction, he had never seen the Mosque or even been to Cordoba. This makes the fact of him appreciating the Muslim architecture of the place quite doubtful, and once again supports the previous point of using the building to emphasise his power.
However, once Charles V finally visited the Cathedral, he expressed his feelings of regret "You have built what you or others might have built anywhere, but you have destroyed something that was unique in the world .” This event brings back hope about the meaning of the building, and the architectural appreciation, although late, of the governor of Spain.
The Mosque of Cordoba is a great example of a religious buildings being used mainly for political rather than religious reasons. However it is by far not the only one. The main purpose of a religious building is to use it for prayer, meaning that the space itself should be meaningless. However, thousands and even millions are spent on building them. We could say that religious architecture is used as an excuse to symbolise authority within society. As Mitchell Kapor quoted, “Architecture is politics” . Architecture can have a huge impact on the way we control the world, that is the reason why looking through out history it is noticeable a relationship between monumental architecture and political views .
I believe that using architecture as a political point can also have a great positive impact in order to understand different effects buildings had on specific cultures, by representing the strength and power of a certain society as the American architect Frank Lloyd said “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization” . Also, architecture is a great tool to represent over the years how architects and leaders have tried to use buildings as testaments of historical events.