First Stop – Post 2: Córdoba Mezquita

#DestinationScotland

THIS is what I had expected to see in the Mezqita de Córdoba! Somehow I had always imagined this space gave onto the countryside, I was surprised the building was surrounded by a maze of narrow streets. Dismayed to be met by sombre saints at the entrance. Here at last I could feel the special light and new freedom in the paradoxically older architecture of the Moorish epoch. Here I could be at peace. If I were a child I’m sure I would want to run from one arch to the other, to see how they differed, how the light played on the symmetrical forms, how it was sometimes bluer and sometimes warmer. As a child at heart I took many photos, but they did not do justice to the space. They did not capture the length of time it took to walk from one end of the chamber to the other. Nor disorientation, as the building is so large, the arches seem to go on for ever. The photos do not capture the silence, muted voices, soft footsteps. There are openings onto the street, but the outside noise does not penetrate within the walls. There are people, but somehow we are all alone with our thoughts. Our eyes and spirits are drawn upward to a higher plane.