Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba
The Great Mosque of Córdoba is the Roman Catholic cathedral since the Reconquista of the city. Its architectural world renown it has but as a former main mosque - al - Jami ʿ al - Kabīr / Jami ʿ Qurtuba - from the era of Moorish Spain. As a church, it is called the Conception of Our Lady Cathedral. Mezquita is the Spanish form of the Arabic word مسجد / Masǧid / [ masdʒid ] and also corresponds to the same major German word mosque. The famous prayer hall is divided by horseshoe arches in 19 approximately equal to tall ships with up to 36 yokes. It was extended by the emirs and caliphs of Cordoba in several phases over again. The building is one with approximately 23,000 m² of the largest former mosques worldwide.
Building
The Cathedral today is 179 m long and 134 m wide. It covers an area of more than 23,000 square meters and is one of the largest religious buildings of the earth. The prayer hall takes just under two thirds of the surface. The court was no less just in the understanding of early Islam prayer room.
The most impressive feature of the prayer hall are the superimposed horseshoe arches resting on pillars 856 of jasper, onyx, marble and granite. The columns largely stem from buildings of the Roman period, both from the previously standing at this point Roman temples and other buildings from the Roman province of Baetica. Create the impression of a dissolution of boundaries upwards, as the large number of intersecting vessels produces an impression of infinity in the horizontal. The main axis of the mosque facing south-southeast, that is not exactly to Mecca. Since the last enlargement of the hall and atrium just to the side was possible, the mihrab is no longer in the central axis, and the hall - not the entire building - is wider than long. Three small domes are located on pillars Gevierten before the mihrab. A dominating central dome as many especially younger mosques did not have the main mosque of Córdoba.
The main axis of built into the middle of the prayer hall in the 16th century church is transverse to that of the mosque and facing east-northeast. It is a basilica in the form of a Latin cross with a central dome. The church extends over ten ships and twelve bays of the mosque arch, so it is about half as long as the mosque wide and one-third as wide as the prayer hall long.
History
The place where the cathedral is served in the days of the Roman Empire of worship. It was there a Roman temple, then a Visigothic cathedral of St. Vincent of Saragossa.
Construction of a mosque
After the destruction of the Visigothic cathedral " St. Vincent the Martyr " by the Muslims was 784 in their place, started the construction of the mosque under the supervision of Abd ar- Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba first. In the following two centuries, it has been extended. Abd ar -Rahman III. was a new minaret in order, Al- Hakam II enlarged the building and equipped with new elements from the mihrab. The stand-up in the prayer hall columns are spolia; existing today arc shapes to emphasize individual Betsaalbereiche have only been used in the construction phase in Al - Hakam II.
The recent enhancements have been made by the vizier Al- Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir 987. The Mezquita was the most magnificent of the city mosques. Córdoba was conquered frequently in the following centuries, and to each conquest was followed by changes in the architecture.
Today's expansion became the building with the expansion of the outer vessels and the Orange Court (Spanish: Patio de Naranjas ).
Rededication to the Christian Church
1236, the same year in which Ferdinand III. reconquered from the Moors of Castile Cordoba, the Mosque of the Christian church was consecrated. Alfonso X commissioned the construction of the Villaviciosa Chapel and the Royal Chapel. See the following for him kings completed the church.
In the first two and a half centuries, this was limited to smaller installations and conversions. Only Bishop Don Íñigo Manrique (1486-1496) advocated the incorporation of a Gothic nave. In the last year of the reign of the fourth bishop after him, Don Alonso Manrique, began in 1523 the decisive conversion against the vigorous opposition of the City Council of Córdoba, but with the approval of the Habsburg emperor Charles V ( Charles I of Spain ). Here, in the middle part, the columns were removed to make room for a church building in Plateresque style.
When Charles V. saw the result, he reportedly said: " I did not know what it was here. Because if I had known, I would not have allowed that one lay his hands upon the old building. You have done what was possible, something built what already exists elsewhere, and for that you have destroyed something that was unique in the world. " However, it is not sure if this is really saying attributed to Karl.
Organ
The organ of the cathedral was built in 1702 by organ builder José Martínez Colmenero. The instrument was recently restored by the organ builder Organería Acitores in 1998.
The instrument is divided into bass and treble, and has 25 stops on the bass side and 29 registers on the treble side, plus two registers in the pedal. The key scope of the manual divisions of 49 notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, H- c3).
Position of the Catholic Church for conversion into an interfaith house of worship
The Bishop of Cordoba, Juan José Asenjo, is opposed to conversion of the cathedral in an interfaith worship. He attributes this to the archaeological evidence that the mosque was built on the foundations of a Visigoth cathedral. Therefore, a partial reconversion of the cathedral should be rejected in a mosque.
Gallery
Great Mosque of Cordoba, inside
Great Mosque of Cordoba, inside
Great Mosque of Cordoba, the Mihrab
Great Mosque of Cordoba, facade
Orange trees in the courtyard of the mosque, in the background the church built
Built church above the rooftops of Córdoba
Córdoba, forest of columns of the Great Mosque
To the bell tower converted minaret