Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba

The Mezquita is a unique architectural monument on the site of the Visigothic church of Vincent de Zaragoza, built on the foundations of a Roman temple .

After the Moors conquered the areas around Córdoba in the eighth century , half of the Visigothic Saint Vincent's Church was sold to the Muslims present - under threat of expropriation. When that half proved too small for the growing Muslim population, the Muslims also bought the other half of the church, forcing the Catholic community to give up the church. The original church building was demolished and construction of the mosque began. Abd el-Rahman I (756-788) had the marble columns of nearby Roman villas used for this purpose around 780 . However, these were too small to achieve the correct height. This could still be achieved by installing a second arch . The mosque owes its unique construction to this.

The Mezquita was once the largest mosque in Europe, second largest after Mecca , and had a capacity to accommodate 20,000 people .

Originally there were about 1200 columns in the prayer room. In 1523 , Charles V gave permission to the Bishop of Córdoba to convert it into a cathedral.

Willem Vandenameele