Córdoba

Córdoba (English, Cordova), city in southern Spain, capital of Córdoba Province, in Andalusia, and one of Spain's most famous cities. Located on the Guadalquivir River, it retains in its older sections the whitewashed walls, narrow streets, and colourful patios of a Moorish city. Population 323,600 (2007).

Córdoba is a trade centre for the olives and citrus fruit produced nearby and also has substantial industries. Products include processed food, beer, textiles, machinery, and refined copper. A variety of handcrafted items, especially silver and leather goods, are also produced, chiefly to be sold to the many tourists who visit the city.

Córdoba's most noteworthy building is its great cathedral, which was originally built (8th-10th century) as a Moorish mosque on the site of a Roman temple and later of a Visigothic church. The mosque was known far and wide as Europe's largest and most beautiful Muslim holy building before its conversion into a Christian church in 1236. Another notable structure is the Alcázar, a former Moorish palace erected on the site of Roman buildings and used in later centuries as the seat of the Inquisition; it is now largely in ruins. A bridge of 16 arches, originally Roman and rebuilt by the Moors, connects the central city with Campo de la Verdad, a section across the Guadalquivir; near the bridge is Calahorra Castle. The historic centre of Córdoba was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. The city is the seat of the University of Córdoba (1972).

Córdoba was an important city as early as Phoenician and Carthaginian times. It flourished as a major Roman settlement from the 1st century bc to the 5th century ad, and was subsequently captured first by the Visigoths (572) and then by the Moors (711). In 756, Abd-ar-Rahman I, a member of the Umayyad family, made Córdoba the capital of Moorish Spain, and for the next 250 years the city was one of the world's great commercial and intellectual centres. In 929 Abd-ar-Rahman III established the caliphate of Córdoba, and the city reached a peak of prosperity, rivalling Damascus and Baghdad in its brilliance and intellectual activity. The material well-being of Córdoba declined after the early 11th century as Muslim rule in Spain disintegrated, but it remained a centre of literature and scholarship. In the 12th century the philosophers Averroës and Maimonides were active in Córdoba. In 1236 the city was captured and made part of Roman Catholic Spain by Ferdinand III of Castile. In 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, it was sacked by the French.