Things to do in Córdoba

A thousand years ago Córdoba was one of the largest and most learned cities in Europe, the capital of the Umayyad caliphate in al-Andalus. Its great mosque, later turned into a cathedral, still stands at the heart of the old town, with hundreds of columns supporting red-and-white double arches that seem to repeat into the distance.

Around it lie the narrow streets of the Jewish quarter, the Roman bridge across the Guadalquivir and the fortress-palace where the Catholic Monarchs held court. Just outside the city, the excavated ruins of Medina Azahara show what a caliph's palace-city looked like. Come in May for the patio festival, when residents open their flower-covered courtyards to visitors.