Andalusia
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Andalusia - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Calleja de las Flores
JuderíaA few yards off the northeastern corner of the mezquita, this tiny street has the prettiest patios, many with ceramics, foliage, and iron grilles. The patios are key to Córdoba's architecture, at least in the old quarter, where life is lived behind sturdy white walls—a legacy of the Moors, who honored both the sanctity of the home and the need to shut out the fierce summer sun. Between the first and second week of May—right after the early May Cruces de Mayo (Crosses of May) competition, when neighborhoods compete at setting up elaborate crosses decorated with flowers and plants—Córdoba throws a Patio Festival, during which private patios are filled with flowers, opened to the public, and judged in a municipal competition. Córdoba's tourist office publishes an itinerary of the best patios in town (downloadable from patios.cordoba.es/en); note that most are open only in the mornings on weekdays but all day on weekends.
View Tours and ActivitiesCórdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain -
2. Madinat Al-Zahra
Built in the foothills of the Sierra Morena by Abd al-Rahman III (891–961) for his favorite concubine, al-Zahra (the Flower), the construction of this once-splendid summer pleasure palace was begun in 936. Historians say it took 10,000 men, 2,600 mules, and 400 camels 25 years to erect this fantasy of 4,300 columns in dazzling pink, green, and white marble and jasper brought from Carthage. A palace, a mosque, luxurious baths, fragrant gardens, fish ponds, an aviary, and a zoo stood on three terraces here; for around 70 years the Madinat was the de facto capital of al-Andalus, until, in 1013, it was sacked and destroyed by Berber mercenaries. In 1944, the Royal Apartments were rediscovered, and the throne room carefully reconstructed. The outline of the mosque has also been excavated. The only covered part of the site is the Salon de Abd al-Rahman III (due to open in mid-2023 after a decade of restoration work); the rest is a sprawl of foundations and arches that hint at the splendor of the original city-palace. Begin at the visitor center, which provides background information and a 3D reconstruction of the city, and continue to the ruins, around 2 km (1 mile) away. You can walk, but it's uphill, so consider taking the shuttle bus (€3, or included in the €10 bus ticket from the Paseo de la Victoria in the city center). Both services run frequently. The tourist office can provide schedule details. Allow 2½ to 3 hours for your visit. You can visit the ruins at night Tuesday–Saturday between mid-June and mid-September.
View Tours and ActivitiesCtra. de Palma del Río, Km 5.5, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14071, Spain957-104933Sight Details
Rate Includes: €2, Closed Mon. -
3. Mezquita
JuderíaBuilt between the 8th and 10th centuries, Córdoba's mosque is one of the earliest and most beautiful examples of Spanish Islamic architecture. The plain, crenellated exterior walls do little to prepare you for the sublime beauty of the interior. As you enter through the Puerta de las Palmas (Door of the Palms), some 850 columns rise before you in a forest of jasper, marble, granite, and onyx. The pillars are topped by ornate capitals taken from the Visigothic church that was razed to make way for the mosque. Crowning these, red-and-white-striped arches curve away into the dimness, and the ceiling is of delicately carved tinted cedar. The mezquita has served as a cathedral since 1236, but its origins as a mosque are clear. Built in four stages, it was founded in 785 by Abd al-Rahman I (756–88) on a site he bought from the Visigoth Christians. He pulled down their church and replaced it with a mosque, one-third the size of the present one, into which he incorporated marble pillars from earlier Roman and Visigothic shrines. Under Abd ar-Rahman II (822–52), the mezquita held an original copy of the Koran and a bone from the arm of the prophet Mohammed and became a Muslim pilgrimage site second only in importance to Mecca. Al-Hakam II (961–76) built the beautiful mihrab (prayer niche), the mezquita's greatest jewel. Make your way over to the qibla, the south-facing wall in which this sacred prayer niche was hollowed out. (Muslim law decrees that a mihrab face east, toward Mecca, and that worshippers do likewise when they pray. Because of an error in calculation, this one faces more south than east. Al-Hakam II spent hours agonizing over a means of correcting such a serious mistake, but he was persuaded to let it be.) In front of the mihrab is the maksoureh, a kind of anteroom for the caliph and his court; its mosaics and plasterwork make it a masterpiece of Islamic art. A last addition to the mosque as such, the maksoureh was completed around 987 by al-Mansur, who more than doubled its size. After the Reconquest, the Christians left the mezquita largely undisturbed, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary and using it as a place of Christian worship. The clerics did erect a wall closing off the mosque from its courtyard, which helped dim the interior and thus separate the house of worship from the world outside. In the 13th century, Christians had the Capilla de Villaviciosa (Villaviciosa Chapel) built by Moorish craftsmen, its Mudejar architecture blending with the lines of the mosque. But that was not so for the heavy, incongruous baroque structure of the cathedral, sanctioned in the very heart of the mosque by Carlos V in the 1520s. To the emperor's credit, he was supposedly horrified when he came to inspect the new construction, exclaiming to the architects: "To build something ordinary, you have destroyed something that was unique in the world" (not that this sentiment stopped him from tampering with the Alhambra to build his Palacio Carlos V). Rest up and reflect in the Patio de los Naranjos (Courtyard of the Oranges), perfumed in springtime by orange blossoms. The Puerta del Perdón (Gate of Forgiveness), so named because debtors were forgiven here on feast days, is on the north wall of the courtyard and is the formal entrance to the mosque. The Virgen de los Faroles (Virgin of the Lanterns), a small statue in a niche on the outside wall of the mosque along the north side on Calle Cardenal Herrero, is behind a lantern-hung grille, rather like a lady awaiting a serenade. The Torre del Alminar, the minaret once used to summon the Muslim faithful to prayer, has a baroque belfry that reopened to visitors in late 2014. Views from the top are well worth the climb, but be aware that it's the equivalent of 12 flights of stairs. Allow a good hour for your visit.
View Tours and ActivitiesCalle Cardenal Herrero 1, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain957-470512Sight Details
Rate Includes: Mezquita €13, free Mon.–Sat. 8:30–9:30 am, Torre del Alminar €3 -
4. Museo de Bellas Artes
San FranciscoHard to miss because of its deep-pink facade, Córdoba's Museum of Fine Arts, in a courtyard just off the Plaza del Potro, belongs to a former charity hospital. It was founded by Fernando and Isabel, who twice received Columbus here. The collection, which includes paintings by Murillo, Valdés Leal, Zurbarán, Goya, and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, concentrates on local artists. Highlights are altarpieces from the 14th and 15th centuries and the large collection of prints and drawings, including some by Fortuny, Goya, and Sorolla.
Pl. del Potro 1, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain957-103659Sight Details
Rate Includes: €2, Closed Mon. -
5. Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos
JuderíaBuilt by Alfonso XI in 1328, the alcázar in Córdoba is a Mudejar-style palace with splendid gardens. (The original Moorish alcázar stood beside the mezquita, on the site of the present Bishop's Palace.) This is where, in the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs held court and launched their conquest of Granada. Boabdil was imprisoned here in 1483, and for nearly 300 years, this alcázar served as the Inquisition's base. The most important sights here are the Hall of the Mosaics and a Roman stone sarcophagus from the 2nd or 3rd century.
View Tours and ActivitiesPl. Campo Santo de los Mártires s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, SpainSight Details
Rate Includes: €5, Closed Mon. -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Casa de Sefarad
JuderíaThis private museum opposite the synagogue is dedicated to the culture of Sephardic Jews in the Mediterranean. Providing a very personal insight, the museum's director leads visitors through the five rooms of the 14th-century house, where displays cover Sephardic domestic life, music, festivities, the history of Córdoba's Jewish Quarter, and finally a collection of contemporary paintings of the women of al-Andalus ("al-Andalus" is Arabic for "Land of the West").
Calle de los Judíos 17, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14004, Spain957-421404Sight Details
Rate Includes: €5, Closed Sun. and Mon. -
7. Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía
Sector SurLocated in a huge brutalist building whose intricate facade imitates the geometric shapes on the Mezquita stucco-work, this center operates primarily as a stage for live art with artists in residence and regular dance performances. It also hosts regular exhibitions by contemporary Spanish artists. Every evening at dusk, the exterior facade lights up with artwork, best viewed from the Balcón del Guadalquivir park on the north side of the river.
Calle Carmen Olmedo Checa s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain697-104160Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Mon. -
8. Museo Arqueológico
JuderíaIn the heart of the old quarter, this museum is built around a 16th-century mansion and has finds from Córdoba's varied cultural past. You enter via the second floor, which is devoted to prehistoric, Roman, and Moorish exhibits. Highlights include a 1st-century head of Drusus (the son of Emperor Tiberius) and a marble statue of Aphrodite. The first floor shows finds from Roman and Moorish life in Córdoba including a stunning 2nd-century sculpture of Mithras killing a bull. Down in the basement you can see the ruins of a Roman theater built in the 1st century AD. The alleys and steps along Altos de Santa Ana make for great wandering.
View Tours and ActivitiesPl. de Jerónimo Paez s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain957-355517Sight Details
Rate Includes: €2, Closed Mon. -
9. Museo Julio Romero de Torres
San FranciscoAcross the courtyard from the Museo de Bellas Artes, this museum, housed in a 19th-century palace, is devoted to the early-20th-century Córdoban artist Julio Romero de Torres (1874–1930), who specialized in mildly erotic portraits of demure, partially dressed Andalusian temptresses. Romero de Torres, who was also a flamenco cantaor (singer), died at the age of 56 and is one of Córdoba's greatest folk heroes.
Pl. del Potro 1–4, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain957-491909Sight Details
Rate Includes: €4 (card payment only), Closed Mon. -
10. Museo Taurino
JuderíaTwo adjoining mansions on the Plaza de Maimónides (or Plaza de las Bulas) house this museum and it's worth a visit, as much for the chance to see a restored mansion as for the posters, Art Nouveau paintings, bulls' heads, suits of lights (bullfighting outfits), and memorabilia of famous Córdoban bullfighters, including the most famous of all, Manolete. To the surprise of the nation, Manolete, who was considered immortal, was killed by a bull in the ring at Linares in 1947.
Pl. de Maimónides 1, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain957-201056Sight Details
Rate Includes: €4 (card payment only), Closed Mon. -
11. Palacio de los Marqueses de Viana
CentroThis 17th-century palace is one of Córdoba's most splendid aristocratic homes. Also known as the Museo de los Patios, it contains 12 interior patios, each one different: the patios and gardens are planted with cypresses, orange trees, and myrtles. Inside the building are a carriage museum, a library, embossed leather wall hangings, filigree silver, and grand galleries and staircases. As you enter, note that the corner column of the first patio has been removed to allow the entrance of horse-drawn carriages.
View Tours and ActivitiesPl. de Don Gome 2, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain957-496741Sight Details
Rate Includes: From €7 -
12. Plaza de los Dolores
CentroThe 17th-century Convento de Capuchinos surrounds this small square north of Plaza de San Miguel. The square is where you feel most deeply the city's languid pace. In its center, a statue of Cristo de los Faroles (Christ of the Lanterns) stands amid eight lanterns hanging from twisted wrought-iron brackets.
Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain -
13. Plaza de San Miguel
CentroThe square and café terraces around it—and its atmospheric tavern, Taberna San Miguel–Casa El Pisto—form one of the city's finest combinations of art, history, and gastronomy. San Miguel Church has an interesting façade with Romanesque doors built around Mudejar horseshoe arches and a Mudejar dome inside.
Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain -
14. Plaza de Santa Marina
CentroAt the edge of the Barrio de los Toreros, a quarter where many of Córdoba's famous bullfighters were born and raised, stands a statue of the famous bullfighter Manolete (1917–47) opposite the lovely church of Santa Marina de Aguas Santas (St. Marina of Holy Waters), built by Fernando III when he conquered the city in 1236. Not far from here, on the Plaza de la Lagunilla, is a bust of Manolete.
Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain -
15. Puerta de Almodóvar
JuderíaOutside this old Moorish gate at the northern entrance of the Judería is a statue of Seneca, the Córdoba-born philosopher who rose to prominence in Nero's court in Rome and was forced to commit suicide at his emperor's command. The gate stands at the top of the narrow and colorful Calle San Felipe.
Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain -
16. San Nicolás de la Villa
CentroThis classically dark Spanish church displays the Mudejar style of Islamic decoration and art forms. Córdoba's well-kept city park, the pleasant Jardines de la Victoria (Victory Gardens), with tile benches and manicured bushes, is a block west.
Calle San Felipe s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14002, Spain -
17. Synagogue
JuderíaThe only Jewish temple in Andalusia to survive the expulsion and inquisition of the Jews in 1492, Córdoba's synagogue is also one of only three ancient synagogues left in all of Spain (the other two are in Toledo). Though it no longer functions as a place of worship, it's a treasured symbol for Spain's modern Jewish communities. The outside is plain, but the inside (restored in 2018), measuring 23 feet by 21 feet, contains some exquisite Mudejar stucco tracery. Look for the fine plant motifs and the Hebrew inscription saying that the synagogue was built in 1315. The women's gallery (not open for visits) still stands, and in the east wall is the ark where the sacred scrolls of the Torah were kept.
Calle de los Judíos s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain957-202928Sight Details
Rate Includes: €1, Closed Mon. -
18. Torre Calahorra
Sector SurThe tower on the far side of the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge), which was restored in 2008, was built in 1369 to guard the entrance to Córdoba. It now houses the Museo Vivo de Al-Andalus (Arabic for "Land of the West"), with films and audiovisual guides (in English) on Córdoba's history. Climb the narrow staircase to the top of the tower for the view of the Roman bridge and city on the other side of the Guadalquivir.
View Tours and ActivitiesAv. de la Confederación s/n, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14009, Spain957-293929Sight Details
Rate Includes: €5, includes audio guide -
19. Zoco
JuderíaThe Spanish word for the Arab souk (zoco) recalls the onetime function of this courtyard near the synagogue. It's now the site of a daily crafts market, where you can see artisans at work and live music on weekends.
Calle de los Judíos 5, Córdoba, Andalusia, 14003, Spain957-204033Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free
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