CATHEDRAL AT CÓRDOBA

WIENER, Jacques: Spain, 1859, Bronze, 59 mm
Obv: View of interior of cathedral
Exergue: CATEDRAL DE CORDOBA
Rev: Another view of interior
Exergue: MEZQUITA ERIGIDA 786 POR ABD-EL-RAHMAN. CONVERTIDA EN IGLESIA POR FERNANDO III 1236.
Signed: J. WIENER F. / J. WIENER
Ref: Van Hoydonck 168; Reinecke 59; Ross M219; Weiss BW261

Cordova is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name. It is a typically Moorish city, with narrow, winding streets, especially in the older quarter. The most glorious building of Cordova, surpassing its other Moorish or Christian buildings, is the Mezquita, or mosque. This Great Mosque of Cordova was originally founded on the site of a Roman temple and a Visigothic church by Abd-ar-Rahman I in 786, who wished to confirm the power of his caliphate by making its capital a great religious center, rivaling those of the East. Over the years a number of additions were made to the mosque until its original size was more than doubled, making it the second largest sacred building of Islam, after the Kaaba at Mecca. The ground plan is in the form of a rectangle and is only slightly smaller than St. Peter's in Rome. The mosque has a carved and painted wooden ceiling. The most exquisite work in the whole mosque, however, is found in the third Mihrab, or prayer niche, a small octagonal recess roofed with a single block of white marble, carved in the form of a shell and with its walls inlaid with Byzantine mosaics. As the exergue on the medal indicates, in 1236 Cordova was captured by Ferdinand III of Castile, who converted the mosque into a cathedral, as it now contains a Catholic Main Altar and  Capilla Sagrario.  Its minaret was changed into a bell tower and an entire Gothic chapel inserted into the heart of the former mosque.

Photo of the Colonnes de la Mezquita (from wikipedia)

Mihrab of the Maqsura

LINK to History of  Ecclesiastic Architecture (from World History at KMLA)

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