Plaza del Potro

Look at the little colt on top of the fountain: it has been here since 1577 and gives its name to one of the most famous squares in Spanish literature. This was the inn district, beside the river and the road to the bridge, where muleteers, cattle dealers and travellers of every kind arrived, along with rogues, card sharps and other shady characters.

1The Colt of Córdoba

Cervantes knew this world well. In chapter three of Don Quixote, the innkeeper who dubs Don Quixote a knight boasts of having spent his youth roaming Spain’s most disreputable haunts, and among them he names «the Potro of Córdoba». The Posada del Potro, on your left as you walk down, is already recorded as an inn in 1381: a courtyard with stables below and rooms above, heir to the old Andalusi caravanserais.

Tradition insists that Cervantes himself stayed at this inn. It is possible, as he passed through Córdoba, but no document proves it.

2Romero de Torres’ women

Opposite, in the former Hospital de la Caridad, are the Fine Arts Museum and the museum devoted to Julio Romero de Torres, the painter of dark-eyed Cordoban women, the man who, as the popular song says, «painted the dark-haired woman». At the top of the square, another archangel Raphael keeps watch from his eighteenth-century column. Today the inn houses the Fosforito Flamenco Centre.

3What to look for

• The colt on the fountain, with the shield between its hooves.
• The courtyard of the inn, if the door is open.
• The Triumph of St Raphael at the top of the square.