Walk through the Gate of Forgiveness into the courtyard. You are in the mosque’s old sahn, where the faithful washed before prayer. It measures some 130 metres long by 50 wide, and the rows of orange trees seem to carry on inside, in the lines of columns of the prayer hall.

1Orange trees, palms and a cistern

There have been orange trees here since at least 1512, and their present arrangement in rows is due to Bishop Francisco de Reynoso, at the end of the sixteenth century. Beneath your feet, in the eastern part of the courtyard, a huge cistern from Almanzor’s enlargement, of the late tenth century, was excavated in 2001.

2A tower within a tower

Look at the tower again: inside it is the minaret that Abd al-Rahman III had built in 951-952. After a great storm in 1589, Hernán Ruiz III wrapped it in this Renaissance tower, finished in 1617. At the top, 54 metres up, the archangel Raphael has watched over the city since 1664. The Gate of Forgiveness is Mudéjar, from 1377.

Inside the prayer hall, behind a grille, is a column with a small cross scratched into it. Tradition says a Christian captive chained to it carved it with his fingernail; historians consider it a legend.

The interior of the Mosque-Cathedral and the climb up the tower usually require a ticket: check the times on the Cathedral Chapter’s website.

3What to look for

  • The orange trees in rows, aligned with the aisles.
  • St Raphael at the top of the tower.
  • The arches of the Gate of Forgiveness, on both sides.
Ripe oranges hanging from a tree in the Courtyard of the Orange Trees, with the courtyard arcades behind
The orange trees that give their name to the mosque’s old ablutions courtyard.

Documented

The courtyard derives from the ablutions courtyard of the Umayyad mosque; the Renaissance tower encases the minaret of Abd al-Rahman III and was completed in 1617.

Oral tradition

The story of the captive who carved a cross into a column with his fingernail is a legend with no historical basis.

Sources and credits

Cathedral Chapter of Córdoba, official website of the Mosque-Cathedral (mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es); Manuel Nieto Cumplido, La Catedral de Córdoba (Cajasur, 1998); Pedro Marfil, archaeological studies of the Patio de los Naranjos (University of Córdoba).

Photos:

  • The bell tower of the Mosque-Cathedral seen from the Courtyard of the Orange Trees, with the Gate of Forgiveness at its base: Heparina1985, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Ripe oranges hanging from a tree in the Courtyard of the Orange Trees, with the courtyard arcades behind: Cristobalfdez, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Spotted a mistake? Drop us a line and we’ll look into it.