In front of you is Córdoba’s last royal palace. This site once held the palace of the Umayyad emirs and caliphs, next to the Mosque, and later an Almohad citadel. After the conquest of 1236 the land was shared out, and it was Alfonso XI who, from 1328, built the Castilian fortress you see, with its four towers: the Lions’ Tower, the Keep, the Inquisition Tower and the Dove Tower.

1The court of the Catholic Monarchs

Isabella and Ferdinand spent long periods here over some eight years, because Córdoba was their base of operations against the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Their daughter Maria, future queen of Portugal, was born in this Alcázar in 1482. And in 1486 a Genoese sailor, Christopher Columbus, arrived in Córdoba following the court to argue for his plan to sail west. Here he met Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, mother of his son Hernando, born in Córdoba in 1488.

Tradition places in this Alcázar the audiences at which Columbus set out his plan to the monarchs. A group of statues in the gardens recalls the meeting.

2From palace to prison

After 1492 the monarchs handed the fortress to the Inquisition, which occupied it until 1812. It then became a prison, and from the 1950s it was restored along with its gardens of long pools. In recent years it has been undergoing works: check the city council’s website to see which areas are open.

3What to look for

  • The Lions’ Tower, the oldest, with lion-shaped gargoyles.
  • The battlements along the wall.
  • The coat of arms of Philip II above the entrance.
Alcázar gardens with long pools, hedges, cypresses and the Keep in the background
The Alcázar gardens, laid out in the mid-twentieth century on the old orchard.

Documented

A Castilian fortress begun by Alfonso XI in 1328, residence of the Catholic Monarchs during the war for Granada and seat of the Inquisition from 1492 to 1812.

Oral tradition

That Columbus set out his plan to the monarchs precisely inside the Alcázar is local tradition; it is documented that he was in Córdoba following the court from 1486.

Sources and credits

Córdoba City Council, official website of the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos; Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada, La guerra de Granada (1482-1491) (Diputación de Granada, 2001); Consuelo Varela, Cristóbal Colón: retrato de un hombre (Alianza, 1992).

Photos:

  • The Lions’ Tower of the Alcázar of the Christian Monarchs, square and crenellated, next to the stone wall: Amelia Wells, CC BY 2.0.
  • Alcázar gardens with long pools, hedges, cypresses and the Keep in the background: José Luis Filpo Cabana, CC BY 4.0.

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