CORDOVA, capital of the Spanish province described above; on the southern slopes of the Sierra de Cordova, and the right bank of the river Guadalquivir; on the junction of the main Ma drid-Seville railway with branch lines to Almorchon, Utrera and Malaga. Pop. (1930), 103,106. Cordova is an episcopal see. The city is typically Moorish in plan, with narrow, winding streets, especially in the older quarter of the centre and west. Beyond several ruined towers and gates, few fragments remain of the ancient walls which once surrounded it, except in the south-west where they show traces of Roman foundations, and in the north east. The hills behind the city are planted with olive and orange groves and there are gardens beyond the walls on the west. A Moorish bridge with 16 arches on Roman bases connects Cordova with its suburb across the river. At the south end of the bridge stands the tower of La Calahorra; at the north a ruined gateway and near by an elevated statue of the city's patron saint, St. Raphael. West of the bridge, near the river, lies the Alcazar or palace quarter, probably the original nucleus of the town. Here stood the Roman civil and military buildings which the Arab caliphs converted into a royal residence. The site of the Old Alcazar, where the royal guards were quartered, has been gradu ally built over by workmen's houses. The New Alcazar, which was the palace itself and was later the residence of the Holy Inquisi tion, is now mainly in ruins, except one wing, which is used as a prison. Gardens overlooking the river, the bishop's palace and an ecclesiastical seminary also occupy part of the site. Other impor tant public buildings are the old monastic establishments, the churches, the city hall, the hospitals and the schools and colleges, including the academy for girls, founded in 1590 by Bishop Pacheco of Cordova, which is empowered to grant degrees.
But the glory of Cordova, surpassing all its other Moorish or Christian buildings, is the mezquita, or mosque, now a cathedral, but originally founded on the site of a Roman temple and a Visi gothic church by Abd-ar-Rahman I. (756-788) who wished to confirm the power of his caliphate by making its capital a great religious centre, rivalling those of the East. The growing popula tion of the city soon rendered a larger mosque necessary and, by orders of Abd-ar-Rahman II. (822-852) and Al-Hakim II. (961 976), the original size was doubled. After various minor additions, Al-Mansur, the vizier of the caliph Hisham II. (976-1009), again enlarged the Zeca, or House of Purification, as the mosque was named, to twice its former size, rendering it the largest sacred building of Islam, after the Kaaba at Mecca. The ground plan of the completed mosque forms a rectangle, measuring 59oft. by 4 2 5f t., or little less than St. Peter's in Rome. About one-third of this area is occupied by the famous Court of the Oranges and the cloisters which surround it on the north, west and east. Passing through the courtyard, the visitor enters on the south a labyrinth of pillars in which porphyry, jasper and many-coloured marbles are boldly combined. Part came from the spoils of Nimes or Nar bonne, part from Seville or Tarragona, some from the older ruins of Carthage, and others as a present to Abd-ar-Rahman I. from the East Roman emperor Leo IV., who sent also from Constanti nople his own skilled workmen, with 16 tons of tesserae for the mosaics. Originally of different heights, the pillars have been adjusted to their present standard of 13ft. either by being sunk into the soil or by the addition of Corinthian capitals. The pres ent 85o pillars divide the building into 19 north to south and 29 east to west aisles, each row supporting a tier of open Moorish arches of the same height (i 2f t.) with a third and similar tier superimposed upon the second. The Moorish character of the building was unfortunately impaired in the i6th century by the erection in the interior of a crucero, or high altar and large cruci form choir, by the formation of numerous chapels along the sides of the vast quadrangle, and by the addition of a belfry 300f t. high in place of the old minaret. Modern vaulting is now being removed to reveal a wooden Moorish ceiling carved and painted and still practically intact. The most exquisite work in the whole mosque 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. Cordova was celebrated in the time of the Moors for its silver smiths, its silk embroideries and for a peculiar kind of leather which took its name from the city, whence is derived the word cordwainer. Fine gold and silver filigree ornaments are still pro duced but the leather industry has degenerated into an imitation of Moorish work. The chief modern industries of Cordova are brewing and distilling and the manufacture of textiles. The exports, besides some copper from neighbouring mines, are filigree work and oil and rough clothing for sale in the Andalusian fairs.
Corduba, probably of Carthaginian origin, was occupied by the Romans under Marcus Marcellus in 152 B.C., and shortly after wards became the first Roman colonia in Spain, later with the title of Patricia. After the battle of Munda, in 45 B.C. the city was severely punished by Caesar and 20,000 of its inhabitants massa cred for having supported the sons of Pompey. Under Augustus, if not before, it became a municipality, and capital of the province of Baetica. Strabo (c. 63 B.C.—A.D. 21) testifies to its importance at this period. Its prosperity was due partly to its position on the Baetis, then navigable up to the city, and on the Via Augusta, the great commercial road from northern Spain built by Augustus, and partly to its proximity to mines and rich grazing and grain-pro ducing districts. Under the rule of the Visigoths from the 6th cen tury to the beginning of the 8th its importance declined but, cap tured and largely destroyed by the Moors in 711, it entered 5o years later on its period of greatest prosperity. In 756 Abd-ar Rahman I. (q.v.) made it the capital of Moorish Spain, and the centre of an independent caliphate. Under the Omeyad dynasty the city was reconstructed and filled with palaces and mosques and the walls extended so that the enclosed area was doubled. It reached the summit of its splendour in the middle of the loth century, under Abd-ar-Rahman III. A period of decadence began during the year of 1010 owing to rivalry for the caliphate and in 1236 Cordova was easily captured by Ferdinand III. of Castile. The substitution of Spanish for Moorish supremacy rather acceler ated than arrested the decline of art, industry and population ; and in the 19th century Cordova never recovered from the disaster of 1808, when it was stormed and sacked by the French, though a final, minor revival of prosperity came with the introduction of railways. Tourist traffic now forms an important source of wealth to its inhabitants. Cordova also was the birthplace of the rhet orician Marcus Annaeus Seneca, and his more famous son Lucius (c. 3 B.C.—A.D. 65) ; of the poet Lucan (A.D. 39-65) ; of the philo sophers Averroes (1126-98) and Maimonides (1135-1204) ; of the Spanish men of letters, Juan de Mena (c. 1411-56), Lorenzo de Sepulveda (d. 1574) and Luis de Gongora y Argote (1561-1627); and the painters Pablo de Cespedes (1538-1608) and Juan de Valdes Leal (1630-91) . The celebrated captain Gonzalo Fer nandez de Cordoba (q.v.), the conqueror of Naples was born in the neighbouring town of Montilla.
See Estudio descriptivo de los monumentos 6rabes de Granada y Cordoba, by R. Contreras (Madrid, i885) ; Cordoba, a large illustrated volume of the series "Espana," by P, de Madrazo (Barcelona, 1884) ; Inscripciones drabes de Cordoba, by R. Amador de los Rios y Villalta (Madrid, 1886).