Córdoba

We have arrived in Córdoba just as the city is celebrating the end of Carnival. Yesterday afternoon we went out for a wander around and first came across this group, La Chirigota de San Lorenzo (I believe translated as The Joke of San Lorenzo)...

...singing songs that the crowd was finding very entertaining. I googled them today and they seem to have a long history of composing songs and coming up with different costumes for carnival. Today we took a walking tour and our guide, Rafa, told us that the songs are full of local political humour and recent current events with inside jokes that sometimes he can't even understand. 

Córdoba was first established as a Roman colony over 2100 years ago but there were likely indigenous Iberian settlers here before then. Rafa said that it's impossible to dig anywhere without coming up with some sort of artifact. A Roman temple was discovered in the mid 60s during an expansion of city hall (they had to build elsewhere) and intact Roman mosaic floors were discovered when excavation for an underground parking garage was started under the Plaza de la Corredera (that project was abandoned as well).  Here's a view of the plaza this afternoon in the throes of carnival revelry...

...and when the carnival mascot (we assume) was lit on fire...

This plaza was built in the 17th C probably on the site or near a Roman amphitheater. It was originally used as a bullfighting ring, hence the arches. Now these arcades are bars, cafes, shops, restaurants and entrances to the apartments above.

In 711 Córdoba fell to Muslim invaders, and within a couple hundred years was the largest city in Western Europe. It was a thriving centre of multiculturalism...Jews, Christians, and Muslims...libraries, universities, observatories, aqueducts, and artisan workshops. The famous Jewish scholar and philosopher Maimonides was born here, and this bronze sculpture of him is in the former Jewish quarter, Juderia.

We're enjoying the narrow and winding lanes, similar to what we've experienced in other Mediterranean towns with an Islamic past. This town has a lot of little plazas...come around a corner and the lane suddenly widens at an intersection. There's often a little fountain like this...

Quilters will recognize this tile "tumbling block" pattern.

Here's the Roman bridge...much restored...there's not a lot of original Roman work left in this...

And finally, a view of our accommodations:

Lloyd making breakfast this morning...

Tomorrow, the sightseeing continues!