The Great Mosque of Cordoba - Islamic Spain - Architecture
Islamic Spain: Dynamic Architecture
The Great Mosque of Cordoba is a unanimously known architectural creation of Medieval Times. With its use complimentary aesthetic elements, this hypostyle mosque amounts to much more than a mere variant of this sort. During the time of the Islamic invasion, all the different ethnic groups adopted their own individual artistic characteristics, which they tried to expand to all the geographic areas that were under their political or religious influence. All of this is evident in the medieval architecture of Spain where we can see how characteristics are present according to the level of influence that a certain group had in a specific geographical area. From the 8th to the 11th Century, the Spanish Islamic architecture suffered some series of changes, thanks to the presence of pre-invasion styles in all the Southern Central area of the Country. With a notable presence of Roman and Visigoth structures especially in Southern Spain, the Muslims decided to take advantage of structures that were already built and in that was the Cordobes, or Cordovan style was created. This style, names after the city of Cordoba became the capital of the caliphate.
In the year 711 AD, Muslims from North Africa historically known as the Moors, invaded the Iberian Peninsula taking control over more than sixty percent of the whole territory. This would not only shape the political map of Spain during the Middle Ages, but it would also shape the cultural and artistic profile of this section of Europe. Before and after the Moorish invaders had come to the Peninsula, Spain was an area where one could find a strong diversity of ethnical groups sharing a common ground. Visigoths, Sueves, Basques, Hispano Romans and Jews all lived together right after the fall of the Roman Empire. With the Islamic Invasion, a new element was added to the already ethnically diverse territory, only this time, the relationship among the different groups would be extremely delicate as a consequence of all the existing religious, cultural and ethnical differences.
The Great Mosque of Cordoba was built in one year. Made from a variety of materials including stucco, marble and wood. Between the years of 784 and 786 it was built over a Visigoth church. The Great Mosque of Cordoba would receive a series of improvements that gave it a stronger resemblance to the ones built in the East around it’s...