Location
CÓRDOBA
Córdoba, with more than 326,000 inhabitants, is nowadays a medium-sized city, in whose old quarter we can still contemplate impressive buildings with architectural elements from the times when Córdoba used to be the capital city of the Hispania Ulterior province during the Roman Republic, the Bética province during the Roman Empire. We can also admire the brilliance of buildings from the Muslin period, when Córdoba was the capital city of the Caliphate of Córdoba, whose leaders governed a large part of the Iberian Peninsula. At the end of the first millennium, Córdoba was the largest, most cultured and opulent city in the world.
Mosques, libraries, baths and souks abounded in the city, laying the foundations of the European Renaissance. During the long European Middle Ages, letters and sciences flourished in Corduba. Not only did the city have innumerable fountains, but also public lighting and sewers during the period of greatest Caliphate splendor.
In 1984, the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba was included in the list of World Heritage by Unesco, a declaration that a decade later was expanded to the entire historic center. The Cordovan Patios Festival was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2012 and in 2018 the palatine city of Medina Azahara, on the outskirts of the urban nucleus, was also included in the list of World Heritage sites.
Córdoba was the birthplace of three great philosophers: the Roman Stoic Séneca, the Muslim Averroes, and the Jew Maimonides. The poets Lucano, Ibn Hazm, Juan de Mena, Luis de Góngora, Marco Anneo Lucano and Ángel de Saavedra, also known as the Duke of Rivas, were also born in Córdoba.
