Postcard from Cordoba, Spain: Ducking into a couple of museums

“The Three Ages of the Woman,” Mateo Inurria Lainosa, 1923, Museo de Bellas Artes

The year 1835 jumpstarted the core collection of the Museum of Fine Art, or Bellas Artes, of Cordoba. Artwork held in convents was seized to establish the museum which opened in the former Hospital of Charity, operated by the Order of Saint Francis since the 15th century. Today’s collection focuses on regional artists from the 14th century to contemporary.

When the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Cordoba opened in 1867, it shared space with the Bellas Artes until 1920. After several additional moves, the current home was found in 1960 in the 16th-century Palacio de Paez de Castillejo. Recent expansions of the museum have revealed the underlying ruins of what was the largest theatre built in Roman Hispania, remnants enhancing the existing collection of Roman sculpture housed within.

 

Postcard from Cordoba, Spain: The ‘popular religiousity’ of Santa Maria

“Popular Religiousity” is the heading applied to the figures of Jesus and Mary venerated in Cordoba in the brochure for Ruta de las Iglesias Fernandinas. The route includes a series of temples founded by Ferdinand III (1199-1252), King of Castile, following his conquest of Cordoba in 1236.

While figures of Jesus seem to play a larger role than they did in the churches of Seville, Mary is always a show-stopper with her regal brocaded gowns and impressive glittering crowns. Most of the statues of Mary have devoted brotherhoods or cofradias to see that their Marias are always elegantly attired and prepared to be borne aloft in parades, primarily during Semana Santa.

The ticket to La Mezquita Catedral provides you with access during the opening hours of these churches.

Postcard from Cordoba, Spain: White-washed walls make colors pop

Many of the buildings of Cordoba are white, but the city’s monochromatic walls make the splashes of colorful tiles, or azulejos; the red brick and white stone arches echoing the architecture of La Mezquita; and cascading bright geraniums that much more striking.