CORDOBA (AhlulBayt News Agency) - THE Bishop of Cordoba does not like the Great Mosque of Cordoba being called a mezquita (mosque), and has called for it to be named a cathedral. Bishop Demetrio Fernandez, wrote in a Spanish daily, said that calling it the ‘Mezquita-Catedral’ (Mosque-Cathedral) is confusing to visitors.
He says that it is exclusively a cathedral because it has been used for Catholic worship for eight centuries and it is the Catholic church which pays for its upkeep.
The cathedral started out life as a Visigoth church which was begun in 600AD.
When the area was conquered by the Moors, it was bought by Emir Abd ar-Rahman 1, who began to refashion it as a mosque from 784AD, and it was attached to the palace by a walkway.
For the next two centuries it underwent many changes. Later, in 1236, it was re-conquered by Christians and the temple was again converted to become a Christian place of worship destined to be one of the most famous cathedrals in Spain.
Much of the architecture which identifies it as a mosque, including the mihrab, are still in place, making it the unique monument which is visited by millions of people from all over the world, and which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
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