Table Of Content

T he present literary work offers a briefbiographical sketch of the extensive history of Cordoba, one of those cities capable of snatching and dazzling not only to those souls on alert for the passage of time, but also to the followers of the poetical evocation and the sensitive pleasure. A rigorous and pleasant story illustrated with a beautiful selection of photographies and with determined intention of style, but achieving to interest to a wide audience. From its prehistoric origins up to the thresholds of the XXI Century, each chapter approaches the different epochs lived by a city with one of the most illustrious, rich and varied past in the world. Cordoba is the result of the coexistance, antagonisms and interchanges of different cultures: small settlement by the river, emulation of the imperial Rome as the capital of the Andalusia. Pioneer of the oriental luxury and exoticism as court of the omeyas emirs and caliphs, Border city with the nazary kingdom, full of prestigious nobility heraldries and innumerable convents acting as islands and archipelagoes extensively spread in its Renaissance and Baroque urban fabric - now fed by the wealth of The Indies, now destroyed by crisis and epidemics. And, finally, modest and engrossed capital of provinces of the inner Spain. We do not know its future, but its past remains magnificently summarized in this book. After the reading one understands the secret soul of Cordoba. p ALMUZARA ISBN 84-96416-23-2 1111111111111111111111111111 II 97 88496 416239 AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF CORDOBA JosE MANUEL VENTURA was born in Cordoba in 1978. Interested in History from his very childhood, he got a degree in the above mentioned field from the University of Cordoba, where he also did his doctora te, and extended his education with a training period at the University of Toronto (Canada). He belongs to different groups of investigation into the politi cal elites in the Contemporary Andalusia and social regulation, as well as institutions in the region. His dissertation deals with the population of the province of Cordoba between 1808 and 1843, an aspect which is part of his doctoral thesis, and that approaches the rest of realities concerning the already mentioned te rritory. He has also written a monograph on the pu blic transport in his city during the XX Century, as well as different articles about historiography, poli tics and culture. Nowadays, he collaborates in cordo vesian institutions which promote the scientific and artistic spreading, such as the Institute Our6boros of Scientific - Humanistic Studies, of which he is vice president. • HISTORIA GENERAL DE ANDALUCiA • Jose Manuel Cuenca Toribio • CORDOBA Y LO CORDOBES • Luis PALACIOS BANUEIOS. PASEANDO POR CORDOBA. Juan Jose Primo Jurado • CRONICON SEVILLANO • Nicolas Salas. GRANADA EN SEPIA. Cesar Giron © Joss MANUEL VENTURA ROJAS, 2005 © EDITORIAL ALMUZARA, S.L., 2005 EDITORIAL ALMUZARA COLECCI6N ANDAWCiA Director: ANTONIO E. CuESTA L6rEz Pictures: JosE CARLOS NIEVAS Translation: RicHARD LEY & PAUL BARHAM Design: TALENBOOK Printers: PROYECTOS GASMATH Made in Spain l.S.B.N: 84-96416-23-2 Dep6sico Legal: C0-1694-04 www.edicorialalmuzara.com [email protected] ]OSE M ANUEL VENTURA TRANSLATED BY R ICHARD L EY AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF CORDOBA ALMUZARA 2005 I n an intellectual world, plurality and diversity can be identified with wealth. But the reconstruction of Cordoba's bygone times given in these pages is no more besides. It is the characterization of its true urbanistic features by a profes sional. From the beginning of this work, it is apparent that the consideration applied when grouping together the socio-cultural processes are outlined with just as much informative preciseness as analytical correctness. The intimidating challenge to captivate in much reduced numbers of pages, the evolution of one of the cities of greater spiritual density in the entire Occident, appears enviably achieved by the author. The harmony, the balance used in the study of the different chapters of the time in which it was the capital of a nation for almost a century of semi-imperial laws and rank , governed the whole work of Jose Manuel Ventura Rojas, skilfully avoiding the dangers of specialization or an easy anecdotal style. Everything is seen, then, in this version of Cordoba's millennial journey, as a life-giving substance of a civilising legacy of a higher order and at some point in time, almost unique. Such an under taking, it is quite clear, was only feasible by the penmanship as that ofJose Manuel Ventura Rojas providing the well assimilated knowledge and unsurpassed literary gifts. No reader starting the adventure of this masterpiece will fail to acknowledge this. The brilliant publishing house Almuzara, of such praiseworthy Andalusian aspiration , makes, then , with the publication of this work, a solid piece ofA ndalusian history in which the socialization of its knowledge is undertaken with demanding concentration and sensitivity. Josli MANUEL CUENCA ToruBIO Cordoba, June of2 004 Ancient Cordoba 1. Roman Bridge 2. Republican Gates 3. Imperial Gates 4. Gallegos Gate Mausoleum 5. Amphitheater 6. Palace of Cercadilla 7. Claudio Marcelo Temple (Claudius Marcellus) 8. Republican Forum 9. Provincial Forum 10.Theatre 11. High Imperial Circus 12. Secunda D Republican Cordoba Imperial Extension D D Outer city wall Necropolis neighbourhoods D Pre-Roman Cordoba FROM PRE-HISTORY TO ROMAN VISIGOTH CORDOBA VESTIGES OF PRE-ROMAN CORDOBA T o go back to the origins of the city of Cordoba means entering a land lost in the mist of the past. Pre-histo ric remains found in the surrounding area give us an insight as to the age of human presence in the region bur they cannot draw the complete picture of life's complexity at that time. The distance in time, nomadism and the climatic chan ges of the period, as well as the fragility of material remains make the researcher's job rather difficult. This does not mean that the province is poor in Palaeolithic findings. Suffice is to say that one of the earliest human remains was found on the city outskirts, in the Tamujar stream, close to Alcolea. We are referring to the skull of a Neanderthal which when discovered was enthusiastically, and rather naively, named "homo fosilis cordubenses". It dates back to post-mousterian(around about 32 OOO B.C. with such remote dates we will use approxima tions). Materials discovered in a more superficial statum of the site give evidence that in the transit towards Epipaleolithic and Neolithic periods (VI-IV millenniums B.C.) settlements established began to last longer and longer in the area. All authors coincide in pointing out that the origin of this early human presence was due to the strategic situation of the current city: next to an important river (The Guadalquivir), at an easily fordable point of its course, the resources which the open country and Sierra Morena provided which became [9] ". .. Cordoba, ciudad famosa, more and more appealing as farming techniques madre de famosos hijos, were developed. That is why the continuity of a de Senecas y de Lucanos, nucleus established there was guaranteed. capitanes y caudillos, The surest date of the first definitive settle Jue del romano Marcelo ment in the territory, which Cordoba occupies ilustre y claro edificio, today, goes back to the middle of the III millen por lo ftrtil del terreno nium B.C., right in the middle of the Calcolithic y lo admirable del sitio." period. The archaeological excavations carried out between the mid l 960's and 70's have shown JuAN Rurn, that this foundation was situated in an area Romance de los Comendadores named "Colina de Quemados", known today as Parque Cruz Conde: an elevation of land between 15 and 20 meters high (currently less perceivable due to urban development) which lies parallel to the river bank, in a northeast southeast direction and although approximately a kilometre and a half in length by no means did it occupy the whole expanse of the area. The earliest excavation level (o f the 18 carried out) shows a population formed by small agglo merations of huts made ofbranches, adobes (sun dried mud bricks) and plinth stone. They also show rather poor quality hand made ceramics, typical of a community whose economy was essentially farming. However the previously mentioned advantageous situation, at a point which was easy to defend and control the te rritory and which was also an important com munication centre, would favour its later deve lopment receiving external influences: during the III millennium B.C. the Andalusian ambit experienced singular cultural manifestations such as megalithism, the "vaso campaniforme" or metallurgic agricultural populations, people who lived, side by side, off farming, livestock and metal exploitation. 1101 In the Final Bronze or the precolonial Tartessos period (1100-750 B.C.) the Cordovan settlement became more and more developed as mining exploitation grew in the area. The iron metallurgy that started to develop in the east of the Mediterranean had not yet reached the west. Little by little populations like that of the Colina de Quemados began to establish contact with, and receive influences from, other inhabited nucleus that proliferated around the lower course of the Guadalquivir river (Carmona, El Carambolo, Cerro Macareno, Cabeza de San Pedro, La Joya, Niebla, today in the provinces of Seville and Huelva). In this last region the Tartessus were encountered, they were considered the most cultural and developed of all the Iberian populations and moreover, it appears that they had their own monarchy that reached quite an extensive dominion and influence in the south of the Iberian peninsular. Remnants of diverse archaeological remains and semi-legendary stories later put together by Greek-Roman authors show us their power and fame. As from 750 B.C. the growth of countryside settle ments continued and the Semitic influence became more and more present in the east Mediterranean. This period of Oriental influence (8th- 6 th centuries B.C.) was notable for its material development due to, in great length, contri butions gradually introduced, mainly by the Phoenicians, into the Andalusian ambit, fruit of commercial and cultural trading with the Tartessus and other settlements in the area. The Greek presence in the Phocacean Phocensis area above all was more limited, smaller and later appeared in the early part of the 2nd century B.C. The Inda-European influence, proceeding down through the north of the peninsular from Celtic communities, should also be mentioned. This eastern influence was decisive for the transformation of that society towards a greater economic diversification.It is believed that the Phoenicians may have introduced olive cultivation (very important for the future of the region), I uJ