Table Of ContentT
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
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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
