Cordoba Information: Two
itinararies around Cordoba |
These are short walks, the very briefest examples of the possibilities
offered by Cordoba, though just as interesting as any visit to the
city's monuments, as they reveal a city that has poured much of its
sensibility into its streets and squares. Entering the Puerta de Almodovar,
the last of the Arab city gates, around ten metres away Calle Judlos
weaves its winding way through the whitewashed fronts of the houses,
amidst a subdued quiet broken just before lunchtime as the hum of
conversation gives away the fact that the locals are enjoying a glass
of excellent wine in a street tavern. Some of the houses have kept
their clearly Mudejar structure, and in some places it is possible
to take the high walkway right round the city wall. The Synagogue,
dating from 1315 and the only one in Andalusia, has an attractive
Mudejar decoration influenced by styles from Granada and Toledo. The
wall opposite practically hides the entrance to the Zoco or Souk,
now a crafts market, with a traditional courtyard, like so many others
in Cordoba, but one which by means of protruding and receding elements,
and empty spaces or archaeological remains makes for a feeling of
movement and bustle. Leaving the Zoco, nearby is one of the smallest
squares in the city, la Plaza de Tiberiades, with a statue of a seated
Maimonides.
The street opens up to a square with a private house that has the
typically modest but beautiful Cordoba air of the fifteenth-century
mansions of the nobility. Opposite is the main entrance of the Bullfighting
Museum, a must for fans of this art, and attractive to everyone for
its traditional elegant courtyard, full of Roman, Visigothic, Arab
or Renaissance columns, capitals and cymas; the museum is located
in a house formerly known as Casa de las Bulas. The museum exhibits
personal mementoes, documents, bullfighters' suits and other objects
relating to bullfighters from Cordoba, such as Rafael Molina Lagartijo,
Rafael Guerra Guerrita, Rafael Gonzalez Machaquito, Manuel Rodriguez
Manolete and Manuel Benitez El Cordobes. The second itinerary starts
at la Plaza de Colon. Behind the sizeable front of the Palacio de
la Merced, which now houses the Diputacion Provincial or Provincial
Council, is a superbly restored Baroque courtyard and a well from
the Palaeo-Christian era, hidden away in one of the building's basements.
From the Diputacion it is easy to find el Cristo de los Faroles, a
cross and a square that never disappoint the visitor, particularly
at dusk, at night-time or if the sun casts the shadow of the cross
on to the ground.
The square has the appearance of the courtyard of a convent, where
the whitewash and plain unadorned walls become a feature in their
own right. Curving round the Capuchinos Church, the square leads off
to the Cuesta del Baillo, with a sixteenth-century portal. The steps
of el Bailio are a prominent part of the Holy Week processions, when
the religious guilds display their strength and talent in carrying
the processional floats with images of the Virgin of Christ down to
Calle Alfares, a street that follows the course of the old Roman wall.
Near here is the Palacio de Viana, a palace that was begun in the
fourteenth century and which has been renovated on many occasions
since, and which houses an interesting collection of furniture and
courtly exhibits, though the main attraction is undoubtedly the series
of courtyards, arranged in accordance with the refined and varied
sensibility of Andalusian taste.
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