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Walking, a walk of approximately 15 minutes. (1Km)
The beginning of its construction is due to the first Umayyad emir of Córdoba, Abd ar-Rahman I, being built on the site of the old Visigoth Basilica of San Vicente Mártir, a church built in the 6th century, on whose site the oratory was built or haram in the year 786.
With 23,400 square meters, it was the second largest mosque in the world on the surface, behind the Mecca Mosque, only later reached by the Blue Mosque (Istanbul, 1588). One of its main characteristics is that its qibla wall was not oriented towards Mecca, but 51º degrees farther south, something usual in the al-Ándalus mosques.
In 1238, after the Christian reconquest of the city, his consecration was carried out as a cathedral of the diocese with the episcopal ordination of his first bishop, Lope de Fitero.4 The building houses the cathedral chapter of the Diocese of Córdoba, and because of its character as a Catholic temple and episcopal see, it is reserved only for Catholic worship since 1238 . In 1523, under the direction of the architects Hernán Ruiz, El Viejo and his son, his cruciform basilica was built in Renaissance Plateresque style.
Today the whole is the most important monument of Córdoba, and also of all the Andalusian architecture, together with the Alhambra, as well as the most emblematic of the Umayyad Hispanic art. Declared as a Cultural Interest2 and Cultural Heritage of Humanity as part of the historic center of the city,