Seeking Sun in Córdoba

Every February we search for somewhere that has loads of sun, as little rain as possible and good food. This year, our search led us to Córdoba and Seville.

Humans have been living in the Córdoba area since at least the 8th century BC. Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moors have all ruled the city. Today it’s the 12th largest city in Spain.

Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba

It’s believed that a Visigoth Catholic Basilica originally stood on this spot. That Basilica was converted to a mosque when the Moors conquered this part of Spain; the mosque was converted back to a Catholic church when the Moors were driven out in 1236. Because of that history, this cathedral is called a Mosque-Cathedral, even though no muslim prayer services are performed here.

Eating well in Córdoba

The culinary part of our trip began right after we landed. With a bit of spare time at the train station, we had a snack at a place called “100 Montaditos.” Montaditos are a type of small, open-faced sandwich that are believed to date back to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The only requirement is that they are always made with bread and topped with something. What kind of toppings? It seems that anything goes.

Parting shots

If our goal was to find sun and good food, then we certainly achieved that goal during our two-day, three-night stay. We were sad to leave Córdoba but also excited to continue our February sun holiday in Seville. I’ll end this with a few more sun-soaked shots.

The Seville part of our sun holiday is forthcoming. (Spoiler alert: it was sunny and we had good food there, too.)

Credits

Roman Bridge and Mosque-Cathedral, Córdoba, 1895. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bild_från_Johanna_Kempes_f._Wallis_resa_genom_Spanien,_Portugal_och_Marocko_18_Mars_-_5_Juni_1895_-_Hallwylska_museet_-_103282.tif
File:Bild från Johanna Kempes f. Wallis resa genom Spanien, Portugal och Marocko 18 Mars – 5 Juni 1895 – Hallwylska museet – 103282.tif
Original caption: Bild från Johanna Kempes f. Wallis resa genom Spanien, Portugal och Marokko 18 Mars – 5 Juni 1895. Córdoba, romerska bron.

This Swedish photograph is in the public domain in Sweden because one of the following applies:

• The work is non-artistic (journalistic, etc.) and has been created before 1 January 1970 (SFS 1960:729, § 49a).
• The photographer is not known, and cannot be traced, and the work has been created before 1 January 1950 (SFS 1960:729, § 44).

If the photographer died before 1950, {{PD-old-70}} should be used instead of this tag.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it meets three requirements:

1. it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days),
2. it was first published before 1 March 1989 without copyright notice or before 1964 without copyright renewal or before the source country established copyright relations with the United States,
3. it was in the public domain in its home country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries).

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.

The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba  aerial photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mezquita_de_Córdoba_desde_el_aire_(Córdoba,_España).jpg
author: Toni Castillo Quero
This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 26 February 2011, 04:38 by Hameryko. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

*when I wrote that line, I thought of an old comedy sketch (Monty Python, I think), that revolved around pictures of a house: “here you can see the front of the house; in this one, you can see the side of the house and the front of the house…” and so on.