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Córdoba is a city of about 325,000 people in Andalusia in southern Spain and the capital of Córdoba province, set mainly on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. It has the hottest summers in Spain and Europe, with July and August highs around 37 °C, and holds four separate UNESCO listings, among them the Mezquita and Medina Azahara.
A Roman colony and capital of Baetica, home of the philosopher Seneca, it was taken by the Muslims in 711 or 712 and became the capital of the Umayyad emirate and then caliphate of al-Andalus. By the 10th century it was the second-largest city in Europe and a great centre of learning, until Ferdinand III of Castile took it in 1236.
Visitors come for the Mezquita, the Jewish Quarter and the Roman Bridge, and in May for the Crosses of May, the Courtyards Festival, when houses open their flower-filled patios, and the Córdoba Fair. High-speed trains link the city to Madrid, Seville and Málaga.
The Mosque–Cathedral, the Mezquita, was raised as the Great Mosque of Córdoba in 785 on the orders of Abd al-Rahman I and enlarged until the late 10th century. Its rows of two-tiered arches shaped later Moorish architecture, and since 1236 it has been the city's cathedral, with a Renaissance nave.
Medina Azahara, the radiant city, is the ruined palace-city that Abd ar-Rahman III began in 936 to 940 west of Córdoba as the seat of his caliphate. Sacked in a civil war between 1010 and 1013, it has been excavated since 1911, gained a museum in 2009 and became a World Heritage Site in 2018.
The Caliphal Baths are a 10th-century hammam built under Caliph al-Hakam II to serve the Umayyad palace beside today's Alcázar. Bathers passed from cold to warm to hot rooms under vaults pierced with star-shaped skylights; buried in 1328 and found again in 1903, the baths are now a museum.
The Albolafia is a noria, or water wheel, on the Guadalquivir by the Roman Bridge, thought to date from the Islamic era, though its exact origins are uncertain. It lifted river water towards the Alcázar until Queen Isabella had the wheel removed in 1492 for its noise; a replica stands today.
The Judería, Córdoba's Jewish Quarter, is the maze of narrow streets northeast of the Mezquita where the city's Jews lived from the 10th to the 15th century. On Calle de los Judíos, at Tiberias Square, a bronze statue honours Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher, rabbi and physician of Córdoba.
The Córdoba Synagogue at 20 Calle de los Judíos was completed in 1315 in Mudéjar style, perhaps as a private synagogue. After the expulsion of 1492 it served as a hospital and a shoemakers' guild chapel, and it is the only synagogue in Córdoba to survive, reopened as a museum in 1985.
The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos is the fortress-palace that Alfonso XI of Castile began in 1328 on the site of the Umayyad palace by the river. Isabella and Ferdinand lived here, Columbus had his first audience with them here, and the Inquisition kept a tribunal in it for three centuries.
The Palacio de Viana in the Santa Marina quarter is a palace begun in the 15th century and enlarged over the centuries, named after the Marquesses of Viana, its last owners. Opened to the public in 1981, it is famed for its twelve patios and garden, and in 2019 it drew more than 193,000 visitors.
The Roman Bridge of Córdoba was built across the Guadalquivir in the early 1st century BC and for two thousand years was the city's only bridge. Largely rebuilt by the Arabs in the 8th century, it has 16 arches over about 247 metres and has been open only to walkers since 2004.
The Calahorra Tower is a fortress of Islamic origin guarding the southern end of the Roman Bridge. Henry II of Castile gave it a moat and a second tower in the 14th century, and a third followed later; declared a monument in 1931, it has housed the Living Museum of al-Andalus since 1987.
The Roman Temple of Córdoba was found in 1951 while the city hall was being enlarged, at the corner of Claudio Marcelo and Capitulares streets. Begun under Emperor Claudius and finished under Domitian, the Corinthian temple measured 32 by 16 metres and opened to visitors on 19 June 2025.
Plaza de la Corredera is the only enclosed, rectangular Castilian-style main square in Andalusia, built in 1683 by Antonio Ramos Valdés in the old San Pedro quarter. Named for the bullfights once held here, it also saw Inquisition autos-da-fé, and it was restored between 1986 and 2001.
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