CORDOVA, k6rfdo-va. or CORDOBA, korf d6-na (Lat. Co•duba, from Phcenieian Karta tuba, Great City). A city of Spain, and capital of the Province of Cordova, situated on the Gua dalquivir, 120 miles by rail north of Malaga (Map: Spain. C 4). It lies at an altitude ex ceeding 300 feet at the base of the Sierra de Cordova. In appearance the city is less char acteristically _Moorish than might be supposed, its aspect being one rather of heterogeneity arising from the conglomerate architecture of various periods; it retains but few marks of the Saracen period, and hut faintly recalls the grandeur of the former metropolis of Mohammedan Spain. The streets are with few exceptions narrow and crooked, and the houses gloomy. The finest edifice is the cathedral, once the chief mosque of the 'Infidels,' and one of the most splendid examples of Moorish architecture. Together with the court. it occupies a site 570 feet by 425 feet, with a bell - tower 300 feet in height. It is surrounded by a wall with strong buttresses, and was originally both mosque and fortress. The interior is almost a labyrinth of pillars, for they number some 850, in various styles and mostly of marble, porphyry, and jas per. The building has considerably through the changes of different epochs, made in the endeavor to convert the mosque into a Chris tian cathedral. A short distance from the cathe dral. to the south, stands the marble triumphal column, erected 1765. of San Rafael. the patron saint of Cordova. Among the Moorish remains are the mined city walls. part of the .Alc:Izar, and the old bridge of 16 arches, 730 feet long. con necting Cordova with its suburb. Campo de la Verda. The bridge, originally built by the Ro mans, was reconstructed on the same foundations by the Saracens. Cordova contains a large num of churches and convents, a bishop's palace. a theatre, and a bull-ring. The educational in stitutions include a lyceum, a theological sem inary, a veterinary school, and a library.
Once a great centre of commerce, Cordova is in a state of decline, her local industries sullen ina in the general stagnation of the coun try. The railroad connection with Seville, Ma laga, and 'Arad rid brought in a little new life. but Cordova is still a city of the Middle Ages. There are manufactures of leather, liquors, hats, cloth, silk, and paper, besides the ancient silver-filigree industry for which Cor dova has lung been famous. Iron is mined ill the vicinity. Population, in 1000, 56,097.
Cordova is said to have been founded by the Phamicians, but was acquired B.G. 15• by the Romans. It rose to he the second city of Spain, the seat of a praetor and a supreme tribunal, and a centre of industry. Taken by the Goths in the sixth century, it fell in 711 into the hands of the Saracens. In 756 the city became the capital of an Ommiad realm, which existed till 1031 and embraced all Spain. This State, whose rulers at first were content with the title of Emir and finally assumed that of Caliph, rivaled in splendor the Eastern Caliphate of Bagdad. From the ninth oentury to the twelfth Cordova was one of the greatest centres of commerce in the world. According to Arabian historians the city at the height of its splendor contained 200.000 houses, a million inhabitants, COO mosques, SO institutions of learning, and a public library with 600,000 volumes. Such ac counts are doubtless exaggerations, but certainly when all was dark over the rest of the Occidental World, Cordova held aloft the light of civiliza tion. After the fall of the caliphate the decline was rapid; the city was taken by Ferdinand of Castile in 1236 and never afterwards regained its prosperity. Cordova was plundered by the French under Dupont in 1808. It is noted as being the birthplace of the two Senecas, the poet Lucan, and the philosopher .Averroes.