The Great Mosque

In the fall of 1990 by then-girlfriend (now wife) and I took our first foreign trip together to Spain. Neither of us had been to Spain, so the trip was designed to see as much as possible in the shortest time possible. The pace was frenetic and what we saw was the Cliff Notes version of the country.

As a matter of fact, we developed a catch phrase which we still use to this day: “Very nice…Very nice…Lets go!” You get the idea.

But there was one place that stopped us in our tracks. Literally. As we blasted into Cordoba, checklist of must-see attractions in our hands, we encountered the Great Mosque. The history and background of this structure from Wikipedia can be found here.

This is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of medieval Moorish architecture in the world today. But it symbolizes something else.

When the Moors were evicted from Iberia, the Christians erected a giant, gothic cathedral in the middle of the mosque. They did not destroy the mosque and replace it. They simply built their monument in the middle of the religious structure of the (in their minds) infidels. I choose not to photograph any of the Christian parts of this structure because one can see this kind of thing in any European city. The Moorish parts, however, are unique.

The Iberian peninsula has a long history of violent religious conflict. This building in its current form is an architectural travesty. It is a perfect symbol and sober reminder of the travesty that results when people wage war over God.

From the inside from the the Great Mosque:

Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M

Lens Zeiss 50mm Distagon

Film: Kodak Plus x Pan 125

Exposure: Not recorded

Inside the Mosque #1

Inside the Mosque #3

Inside the Mosque #2