Cordoba: Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos and Royal Stables

Part of the magnificent gardens of the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos

Travel Date 27th June 2013. 

I almost forgot to mention one of Cordoba's other major historic attractions. An Alcázar is a king's palace fortress. The Spanish word goes back to the period of Moorish control, derived from the Arabic word القصر, phonetically al-qasr. Despite its title the site of Cordoba's Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, Fortress of the Christian Kings, has a history going much further back than the Christians. 

There are Roman ruins on the site from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. 

Later the Visigoth fortress was here when they were defeated by the Umayyads in the 8th century. Successive Arab rulers created an al-qasr on the site as the centre of the caliphate. The original site was larger than the present fortress; the Arab palace was located closer to the Mezquita.

When Ferdinando III conquered Cordoba in 1236 the original Caliphal Palace was in ruins. Nearly a century later in 1328 Alfonso XI commenced construction of the Christian Alcázar next to it.

Over the centuries the alcázar has had a chequered history, much of it bloody. It has been central to Spanish history during the reconquest, civil wars and colonial expansion.

This was the building in which Christopher Columbus received royal approval from Ferdinand and Isabella for his voyage of discovery to the west. It was also the headquarters of the monstrous holy inquisition supported by that terrible two, including rooms and towers for inquisition, torture and imprisonment. It was a prison again in the early decades of the 20th century. 

It was proclaimed a historic architectural monument in 1931 and placed on the world cultural heritage list in 1984.

There are wonderful gardens in the Moorish style in the grounds of the fortress.

The Royal Stables are next to the present alcázar on some of the land where the original alcázar stood. These were constructed in 1570 for Philip II who had a wish to create pure-bred Spanish horses.

 

 

 

In these stables the famous Andalusian horse was first bred from Arab stock.

 

  

Spain is one of those countries I will always enjoy returning to. Next time I will visit Seville and Toledo. On this trip, after Cordoba I went to Morocco.

Cheers, Alan

Algeciras, Spain to Tangier, Morocco

Not a sight typically seen on Australian beaches.

Travel Dates 29th June - 1st July 2013. 

I took a cab to the Renfe station in Cordoba for the ATR train to Algeciras, which is the Spanish town next to Gibraltar. The train left exactly on time. As usual I had a book to read but enjoyed the passing scenery instead; an example was this unknown village and castle.

I'm not sure why, but despite having read with interest much about the history of Gibraltar I was not particularly interested in visiting 'The Rock', so I didn't bother taking the bus to it. Instead I spent a quiet afternoon wandering the dock area and checking out the ferry arrangements for the next day. Algeciras is a fairly forgettable port town.

 

I intended taking the shuttle bus in the morning to Tarifa and the ferry direct to Tangier from there. Unfortunately high winds and consequent high seas at the gates of the Mediterranean had closed the port at Tarifa, so I had to take the Algeciras – Tangier Med ferry and pay 200 dirhams ($25) for a cab for the 60km trip to town. I had been told there is a cheap shuttle bus, but I could not find it.

If you are planning to take that ferry, keep in mind that there is an immigration check point before you can board. My ferry was due to leave at 1400; I thought I had plenty of time when I arrived in the queue at 1330. But with only one immigration officer on duty, with a supervisor who refused to add a second station, I was still in the queue at departure time. So were many other passengers for the same ferry. After immigration we raced along seemingly endless enclosed corridors to the ship, with strategically placed staff offering directions at junctions. 

 

The ship departed almost an hour late, presumably they allowed for the delays. Or maybe it was just luck.

On board the ferry, which was impressively modern and comfortable, was another immigration queue for entering Morocco. Two officials added an entry stamp and a visa number. There was no sign, nor did I hear any announcements. I happened to see the queue and asked what it was for. On landing there was a final check-point for Moroccan customs. 

After the final customs check, having failed to discover the bus to Tangier, I experienced my first Moroccan Grand Taxi.

They are all very old Mercedes sent to Morocco to die but refusing to do so. They are used for inter-town trips, with 'Petit Taxis' used within towns. After my brief sojourn in Morocco I came to the belief that all of the Mercedes built from 1960 to 1980 were sent to Morocco after they became unfit to travel on European roads, to serve many more decades as Grand Taxis. I used five during my visit. One was clean inside, the rest were filthy. All required a request for a window-winder from the driver to operate any of the windows, none had a working air-conditioner in a country where 37C(100F) can be a cool day in June, most of the seats 'floated' with no apparent connection to the chassis, but all the Grand Taxis seemed surprisingly stable on the road. 

The grand view from my first Grand Taxi.

I never made sense of the fare structure. For example, later it cost me 130 dirhams ($16) to travel alone from Meknes station to Moulay Idriss, but only 10 dirhams ($1.25) to return squashed in with four other passengers. The bus was more expensive with standing room only, but I doubt in hindsight it was less comfortable than sharing a single front bucket seat with a large sweaty man for 20km.

En-route from Tangier Med to Tangier

The Petit Taxis were much smaller but actually had meters and were very cheap – when you could find an available one. More on that later, in Fes.

I booked in for an overnight stay in the Ibis beside the railway station. It was clean, reasonably comfortable and very convenient for the train to Fes the following day. Petit Taxis were waiting at the station so I took one to the Medina in Tangier and spent the next few hours wandering the Medina and soaking up the atmosphere.

By chance, after an interesting but long, hot and dusty walk I reached the beach and came across one of the few bars in an Islamic city. The bar was nothing special, full of tourists from the other side of the Mediterranean, but that was a memorable cold beer; the first one didn't hit the sides. After a pleasant hour I wandered down-town searching for a restaurant to try my first tagine. It doesn't look like much, mainly beef with prunes, but it was delicious. I tried to eat some form of tagine daily for the rest of my visit. 

 

I will go into more detail on Medinas and Morocco in the next entry. After wandering further down-town and around the docks I caught a Petit Taxi back to the hotel and bed, tired but happy.

Cheers, Alan

The Mezquita, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain

Travel Date 28th 2013. 

Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a Prince of Araby who was a member of the ruling Umayyad family, who ruled almost all of Araby. His name was Abd al-Rahman and he lived in the region we now know as Syria. There was a revolt and the new rulers, from the Abbassid tribe, decided to wipe out the usurped ruling family. 

The Prince was given warning and fled from the assassins with his brother and a faithful Greek freeman. After a perilous journey, including a river crossing where the pursuers falsely persuaded his brother to return to safety, only to execute him, the Prince crossed Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt before finding safety in his mother's country, Libya.

 

Abd al-Rahman

source: wiki

But safety was only temporary as the Libyan ruler, who was friendly at first, started to fear the popularity of the new arrival. After several close calls Abd al-Rahman and his supporter moved on, reaching some family supporters in Morocco.

Not long before that the Visigoths of the Iberian Peninsula (the region we now know as Spain and Portugal) had lost most of their territory to the invading Arabs who arrived across the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco. The new rulers of that region called it Al-Andalus. Although no members of Abd al-Rahman's family had ever set foot in Al-Andalus, he saw it as his to take. He was fortunate to arrive at a time when control by the Abassids was distant and weak and the local rulers were disunited; they were also having difficulty quashing internal rebellions. 

Abd al-Rahman, with a tiny band of followers, crossed into Iberia and quickly attracted new supporters. He was a brilliant charismatic leader and warrior with diplomatic and political skill. He had escaped Syria with a single supporter in 750 AD. By 757, using all those skills, he was ruler of Al-Andalus. His family ruled as his successors for over 250 years.

One of his strengths was recognition and acceptance of the many religions in his conquered land. He imposed his will on the people, but not his religion. When he arrived in Cordoba a Christian Church stood on a site which had been sacred since it was a temple to Janus in Roman times. 

He wanted to display his power to all of Araby and decided to build a great mosque. He wisely included the Christian church within the structure. Rather than confiscate the church, he bought it from the Christians.

He wanted his mosque to approach the sanctity of Mecca and to rival the great mosques of Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem in the East. The Mezquita took thousands of artisans decades to complete. Over the centuries there have been enlargements and additions, such as more and higher minarets. 

Centuries later the re-conquering Christians in 1236 wisely allowed the mosque to stand when it was converted back to their faith, although significant alterations were made to expand the cathedral section and more chapels were included. 

I'll let my pictures tell the rest of the story.

 

I believe Abd al-Rahman succeeded in his aim for the Mezquita. The Cathedral Mosque truly rivals the mosques of the East.

Cheers, Alan