“Corduba,” from Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg.
Théâtre du cites du monde. [Brussels?: 1576?–1620?].
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (7E.1)
Córdoba, Spain, ca. 1617
Between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, Muslims called “Moors” ruled parts of what is now Spain. Córdoba became the thriving capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba that governed almost all the Iberian Peninsula. In the tenth century, Córdoba was one of the largest cities in Western Europe. The city was conquered by Christian forces under Ferdinand III, King of Castille and Leon, in 1236. The two most important buildings from the Moorish period visible in this view are the Alcazar (Palatium Regium), where Christopher Columbus received royal backing from Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille for his voyage to the Americas in 1492, and the Mezquita (Ecclesia Maior), formerly the Aljama Mosque, remodeled as a cathedral in the early sixteenth century.