UNESCO World Heritage Site – Historic Centre of Córdoba

The forest of columns inside the Mezquita (Mosque-Cathedral) of Córdoba, originally a mosque and a Roman Catholic cathedral since the thirteenth century; the state name 'ESPAÑA'; the year '2010' and the mint mark.

In the 10th century, Córdoba was one of the largest and culturally most significant cities in the Western world. As the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, it was home to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, one of the richest libraries in Europe, and an intellectual milieu in which Arab, Jewish, and Christian scholars worked side by side. The centerpiece of this era is the Mezquita, the mosque-cathedral in the historic center: gradually expanded between the 8th and 10th centuries, its famous forest of over 850 marble and granite columns embodies the architectural sophistication of Moorish rule. After the Reconquista in 1236, the mosque was converted into a cathedral; in the 16th century, a Gothic-Renaissance church was built right in the middle of the rows of arches — a layering of construction that still makes Spain's turbulent history legible today.

The historic center of Córdoba has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984 and is regarded as one of the most densely packed historic centers of monumental architecture on the Iberian Peninsula. Besides the Mezquita, the townscape is shaped by the narrow lanes of the former Jewish quarter, the medieval Alcázar, and the remains of the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir. Spain dedicated its own 2-euro commemorative coin to this heritage in 2010 as part of the Spanish UNESCO World Heritage series, with which the country honors its most significant sites on the World Heritage list. Córdoba stands not only for Andalusian identity but for a European heritage born from the encounter of different cultures.