CORDABA - Julio 2-3

This past weekend we had another opportunity for 3 day travel. My roommates and I decided to conqure Cordoba and Sevilla, two well known southern towns. After class ended 10pm Thursday night we jumped on an all night bus to Cordoba. We arrived there at 7am Friday morning. My roomate Cara has family in Cordoba so we were able to get picked up from the airport by car (thats rare here!) and go back to their apartment to freashen up. Idediately we headed off to the Mezquita: the last remaining Muslim Mosque in España. In the 13 century it was converted into a Cathlic Cathedral but much of the Islamic architecture is still preserved. The Mosque was just one big room with a forrest of pillars - known for its unique red and white stripped arches. The Cathedral was built right smack dab in the middle of this room which makes for an interesting contrast and a beautiful preservation of Spainish history. I made a video while I was touring the Mezquita but for some reason I can´t get it formatted correctly...when I do, I´ll post it so that you can truely experience the inside of this amazing space. This is one of the buildings I had to memorize for my Architecture History class at Cal, I could always ID it because of the red and white stripes...this building and spain have been synonomous in my head ever sense. It was sureal to see it in person!
Classic Spanish Town, it was so fun just to walk around (SUPER HOT THOUGH!)...you can see the Mezquita in the background.

Bell Tower

Mosque Portion (note the sea of arches)

Cathedral Portion (note the boroque columns and gothic cealing ribbs)

Look how the two styles are flawlessly combined! Experiencing this building was great for our studio design project because we are exploring how to combine the castle ruins with new modern architecture. I hope I can do it this well!