Visit Córdoba

before 206 BCE

Prehistoric & Iberian

Before Rome arrived, a Turdetani town already stood on the Colina de los Quemados.

206 BCE–572

Roman Corduba

Capital of Baetica, home of Seneca and Lucan, and a bridge you can still walk.

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  Seneca c. 4 BCE–65 CE

  Stoic statesman and dramatist recalled from exile in AD 49 to teach young Nero.

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  Lucan 39–65

  Epic poet who wrote the Pharsalia on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.

572–711

Visigothic

A bishop's city under new rulers, with Christian mosaics still under glass.

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  Leovigild d. 586

  Visigothic king who retook rebel Córdoba in about 572.

711–929

Umayyad Emirate

From governors' seat to independent emirate, with the first stones of the Mezquita.

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  Abd al-Rahman I 731–788

  Damascus-born founder of the independent emirate that became a caliphate.

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  Ziryab c. 790–857

  Singer, oud player and composer nicknamed the blackbird.

929–1031

Caliphate of Córdoba

An estimated half a million people, a new palace city, a mosque enlarged twice.

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  Abd al-Rahman III c. 890–961

  First caliph of Córdoba, who enlarged the mosque courtyard and built its first minaret.

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  Wallada bint al-Mustakfi c. 1001–1091

  Princess-poet whose salon taught verse to women of every rank.

1031–1236

Taifas, Almoravids & Almohads

The caliphate splinters, yet Averroes and Maimonides are both born here.

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  Averroes 1126–1198

  Physician and judge whose teachings were condemned and works burned in 1195.

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  Maimonides c. 1138–1204

  Jewish philosopher and physician who served as Saladin's personal doctor.

1236–1492

Castilian & late medieval

A mosque becomes a cathedral and fourteen new parish churches rise around it.

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  Ferdinand III c. 1201–1252

  Castilian king who joined León and Castile for good and was canonized in 1671.

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  Isabella I 1451–1504

  Queen of Castile and León from 1474 who agreed to back Columbus's westward voyage.

1492–1808

Early modern

Expelled Jews, a Renaissance nave inside the mosque, and a city settling into quiet.

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  Luis de Góngora 1561–1627

  Priest attached to the cathedral and the great lyric poet of the Spanish Baroque.

1808–today

Modern Córdoba

The Civil War in 1936, then a Mezquita and a historic centre both UNESCO-listed.

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  Julio Romero de Torres 1874–1930

  Regionalist painter whose museum faces the one his father directed.

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  Manolete 1917–1947

  Bullfighter who fought as many as 100 times a year and was gored 11 times.