Photos

Hello friends and colleagues, today I present here the bell tower (former minaret), of the Mosque of Córdoba (now Cathedral), with a partial view of the orange pátio, a symbol of this beautiful Andalusian city. Hope you like it, then some letters on this beautiful monument.

The Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady, before "Holy Mary Mother of God," is the name of the Cathedral Church of Cordoba, or Great Mosque of Cordoba. It was declared a World Heritage Site along with the historic center of Cordoba, was begun in 786 on the site of the Visigothic basilica of San Vicente Martir. The mosque was subject to extensions for the Emirate of Cordoba and the Caliphate of Córdoba. In 1238, after the Reconquest, was conducted the reconversion of the mosque in a Catholic cathedral with the episcopal ordination of its first bishop, Lope de Fitero. In 1523 he began building a Renaissance basilica plateresco style building in the center of Muslim. Today is the most important monument in Cordoba, and also of the whole Moorish architecture, along with the Alhambra.

With 23,400 meters square, was the second largest mosque in the world in area, behind the Mosque of Mecca, still only reached later by the Blue Mosque (Istanbul, 1588). One of its main features is that its qibla wall was not facing Mecca, but 51 degrees further south, which is common in the mosques of Al-Andalus.

The building houses the Cathedral Chapter of the Diocese of Córdoba and this property is also forbidden any organized collective worship or prayer is not Catholic. It is declared of cultural interest in the category of monument and is also one of the most visited tourist areas in Spain and has been considered the first of the 12 Treasures of Spain.

The cathedral is accessed by the Door of Forgiveness (north side), in Mudejar style (1477), where there are rows of orange trees and palms, and the sources and horseshoe arches that surround it. By the door stands the mosque consists of three parts: "The Patio de los Naranjos", that in times of the Caliphate was the "Court of the Ablutions" (retains much of its original appearance), the minaret topped partially surrounded, in the early seventeenth century, a "shuttering" Herrera style.
Las Palmas door gives access to the mosque is a forest of marble columns 1300, jasper and granite on which rest three hundred sixty five bicolor horseshoe arches. The mihrab, the holy place pointing southward and not that of Mecca, according to the will of Rahman (towards the river because he wore to his native Damascus). This is one of the hypotheses, but today most accepted theory is that the main hall of the mosque is the orientation of the main street (cardo) of ancient Roman Cordoba (Colonia Patricia), as witnessed in the Archeological excavations in the city. The mihrab is an ornament of marble, stucco and brightly colored Byzantine mosaics on a gold and bronze as well as copper and silver.
In the Skylight lobed arches are preserved the walls and dome. At the top are the arches, wall mosaics and the structure and decoration of domes of crossed arches.

After the conquest of Cordoba by Christians, they used the mosque to celebrate their faith, but in the sixteenth century, when Islam was finally expelled from the Iberian peninsula, the victors wanted to suit their beliefs: they built a Renaissance cathedral in ships central by Hernán Ruiz, called "old", and then, his son, in the heart of the mosque, altering the original perspective.
In the early Christian church was destroyed to build the mosque in his plot, and only trace was just following some work started in the 1940s were able to recover some of his remains in the basement of the cathedral, mainly mosaics and pillars .
Source Wikipedia, more info at the source.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3100
Software: PhotoScape
Exposure Time: 10/2500 sec
F-Stop: f/8.0
ISO Speed Ratings: 100
Focal Length: 18 mm
Date Taken: 2011-04-06 11:51
Metering Mode: Pattern
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
File Size: 272 kb