The city of Córdoba, in southern Spain, has some tough competition when it comes to grabbing the attention of travelers to Andalusia. Seville has the energy of a regional capital; Malaga combines cultural highlights and a seaside location; Granada has the incomparable Alhambra; and the list could go on. For many, Córdoba has often been relegated to a brief stop en route to another destination. Those who stop and linger, however, will discover a city of countless charms and a fascinating history.
The city boasts of three sites (the Mosque-Cathedral, the historic center, and the Azahara Medina) and one event (the Fiesta de los Patios, in May) that have been recognized by UNESCO on their World Heritage lists. But the city of Córdoba is all that and so much more. It’s the courtyards that smell of orange blossoms. It’s the elegantly acrobatic equestrian performances of its horses. It’s salmorejo, a local soup made of tomatoes and bread, full of flavor and tradition. It’s the rhythm of a Spanish guitar, the heart of flamenco music and dance. It’s contemporary dishes that are rooted in the region’s culinary traditions.
This guide will show you how to savor every moment of your 48 hours in this enchanting city.
Day 1: The caliphate’s capital
10:00 a.m. According to some accounts, in the 10th century, the Moorish city of Córdoba (or, as it was then known, Qurtuba) had one million inhabitants, a figure that recent research indicates is likely exaggerated. What modern historians do agree on, however, is that it was an immense and cosmopolitan place, one of the largest cities of its time and the first megalopolis on the Iberian Peninsula.
Córdoba was built on the remains of a Roman settlement (the bridge built by the Emperor Augustus in the first century BCE is the most visible remnant from that period), but what the Muslim conquerors established here is almost legendary. For more than 500 years—from the year 711 to 1236—the city was ruled by Muslims. It had running water and public lighting systems, libraries, baths, and a multicultural population that lived both inside the Roman walled perimeter—occupied by one of the three medinas—and outside it, in a number of suburbs.
Every day, thousands of worshippers would gather in the great mosque that Emir Abd ar-Rahman I began to build in the year 785, incorporating stones from earlier Roman and Visigothic buildings.
Later expansions followed under other emirs such as Abd ar-Rahman II, al-Hakam II, and Abd ar-Raham III. One of the most significant, the work completed during the reign of al-Mansur, gave the building the rectangular form it had until the 16th century, when a cathedral—with a mix of Gothic, Renaissance, and Mannerist details—was constructed inside the mosque.
The Mosque-Cathedral, also known as the Mezquita, is a unique monument to two of the world’s major religions. It’s a good idea to visit early in the morning before the weather gets too hot and ahead of most of the thousands of visitors who arrive every day. Getting there early also assures you’ll have adequate time to explore the building: walking through the forest of marble, jasper, and granite columns inside and among the orange trees, palms, and cypresses in the Patio de Naranjos.
For a more intimate experience when visiting the site, return in the evening when a sound and light show provides an introduction to its historical and artistic significance.
12:00 p.m. A short walk from the Mosque-Cathedral, in the Axerquía neighborhood, is Bodegas Campos, which opened its doors in 1908. It was long dedicated to the aging and selling of wines from the Montilla-Moriles region to the south of Córdoba, but in the 1980s, it expanded to include a hotel and restaurant. When you enter this collection of old Cordoban houses and courtyards to have a drink in its tavern or eat a traditional dish in its restaurant, you’ll follow a stone lane along which wine casks once rolled.
Among posters related to bullfighting, city festivals, and pilgrimages—as well as vintage china from the La Cartuja de Sevilla porcelain factories—there are barrels signed by illustrious visitors including former prime minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, the Spanish actor Lola Flores, and the painter Romero de Torres. One can feel and taste the true essence of Córdoba, concentrated here in every sip of a good amontillado wine.
2:00 p.m. Close by, the Ermita de la Candelaria restaurant opened in 2017, under the direction of Javier Campos who had been manager of Bodegas Campos for 25 years. It offers traditional cuisine in a charming courtyard space. Products from the mountains and countryside near Córdoba and the orchards and vineyards of Andalusia are highlights of the menu. The sirloin steak with mushrooms, potatoes, or artichokes (depending on the season) bathed in an intense green virgin olive oil sauce will instantly transport every diner to the region’s olive groves.
5:00 p.m. Hygiene and cleanliness were so important in the caliphate of Cordoba that, in the time of al-Mansur, there were more than 600 baths (or hammams) in the city. It’s a ritual that visitors today can relive at the Hammam Al Ándalus on Calle Corregidor Luis de la Cerda. After a soak in the thermal baths, indulge in spa treatments like a traditional kessa message, which is performed on a hot stone. It begins with the application of a foaming paste of natural soap and ends with a 15-minute relaxing massage using essential oils from the El Jardín de Hammam line.
7:00 p.m. As the day ends, stroll through the famous Jewish quarter, located within the historic heart of the city. A labyrinthine network of alleys with Islamic aesthetic influences stretches from the famous city gate, the Puerta de Almodóvar, to the Mosque-Cathedral. Bougainvillea and geraniums flourish throughout the narrow streets, small arched passageways, and houses with courtyards.
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Some of the highlights not to be missed in the neighborhood are the Municipal Artisans’ Market, the Mudejar chapel of San Bartolomé, and the Cordoba Synagogue, built between 1314 and 1315—according to the inscriptions found in the building—shortly after Alfonso X established the boundaries of the Jewish quarter.
9:00 p.m. The restaurant Garum 2.1 promises an evening of visual and culinary surprises. In the first category is the old Roman wall that is incorporated into the restaurant. The gastronomic delights are thanks to the innovative chef who helms the kitchen, Juan Luis Santiago. He fuses cod cocochas al pil pil with roast lamb kidneys, and an octopus with smoked pig’s ears. A salmorejo soup with prawns, apple, and anchovy is flavored with amontillado sherry; it won first prize in the Córdoba Gastronómica event in 2012. Oenophiles will want to let Mariola Jiménez, an authority on and lover of Andalusian wines, guide their selections for the evening.
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11:30 p.m. One of the alleyways in the Jewish quarter is dedicated to salmorejo cordobés, perhaps the city’s most famous dish. There is even a recipe for the tomato-and-bread soup painted on a tile on one wall along the street. Fans of the dish, led by the Cofradía Gastronómica del Salmorejo Cordobés, are attempting to have it recognized by UNESCO. It is right opposite your home in Córdoba, the boutique hotel Las Casas de la Judería.
The list of reasons why this is one of our favorite hotels in the city begins with its location, close to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, the Royal Stables, the Caliphal Baths, and the Synagogue. Here, no two rooms are the same, as the hotel is made up of several old houses, the most outstanding being the Casa Palacio de la Pavas, whose construction dates back to the 14th century. One of its owners, Canon Juan Sigler de Espinosa, gave it an elegant Renaissance makeover in 1597.
When you discover its Roman ruins, sleep under a wooden coffered ceiling, lose yourself among its corridors and balconies, sit in one of its courtyards listening to the sound of the water in a fountain, or bathe in its (almost) secret pool, the history of the place comes to envelop you completely. And that history is fascinating and multi-faceted. Just one example: Luis de Góngora—one of the most celebrated poets in the Spanish language—was born here in 1561.
Day 2: Córdoba today
9:00 a.m. First thing in the morning, you should be standing outside El Brillante bakery, waiting for them to open. Here, José Roldán, who led the Spanish Artisan Bakery Team to victory in the International Bread In The City Championship, produces some of the best loaves in the world.
Spelt bread, whole-grain bread, local telera bread, olive-oil cakes—it’s hard to choose just one, but fortunately you can’t really go wrong here. While Roldán prefers not to say which of “his children” he loves the most, he shares that he usually has a white roll for breakfast every morning, made in the style of bread from the town of Antequera, also in Andalusia, but with a certain Córdoba accent fitting the man who was named best artisan baker in Spain in 2015.
10:30 a.m. An excellent bread should be accompanied by an exquisite oil like one from Lucena. “It is the most recent appellation of origin, from 2015, and also the largest,” explains Isa Calvache, founder and director of Catas con Isa & Caracol Tours. “It includes some 311,000 acres, of which 178,000 are planted with olives—more than one million olive trees.”
Write down the name of the winner of the first edition of the Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) Aceite de Lucena awards—Hercules, from the Cooperativa de Ruta—and buy a bottle before you leave Córdoba. The second prize option is good too: It went to La Lucentina y Los Omeyas, from the Cooperativa La Unión de Montilla.
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12:00 p.m. It’s time to make some decisions. Do you want to visit the Caliphal Baths, built during the reign of al-Hakam II in the 10th century, or perhaps you’d rather explore the millennia at the Archeological Museum of Córdoba, with artifacts from every civilization that has settled in the city? The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, built on the site of the earlier Caliphal Palaces, is famous for its Moorish-style gardens and as the site of a meeting between Christopher Columbus and his patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella. Just as the Mosque-Cathedral has a nightly spectacle, the gardens at the Alcázar host a light-and-sound show as well, Naturaleza Encendida: Raíces, which turn the site into a backdrop for a magical display recounting the history of Córdoba.
2:00 p.m. There is also magic on display at ReComiendo, where chef Periko Ortega prepares surprising and delicious tasting menus. The dishes at all of his restaurants—Perikada and Power, as well as ReComiendo—are built around memories. Both the memories of Andalusia, and the memories he creates for diners today. Among the imaginative dishes he prepares are pañuelos de patata (“potato handkerchiefs”); chorizate, fried eggs with a chorizo that you serve yourself from a tube; the gazpacho served in a traditional clay container; and the Viaje de Córdoba a Málaga (“the Journey from Córdoba to Málaga”), an arepa with sardines, pork, and tripe that will transport you to your favorite Mediterranean beach bar with just one bite.
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The culinary imagination of ReComiendo produces many other wonderful dishes, but the restaurant’s olive-oil cart is another highlight, with more than a dozen different options presented at most meals. Periko often surprises diners with his finds, and he then makes diners dunk artisanal bread into some of the oils he has curated. The De Oca A Oca petit fours are a delightful conclusion to a meal here, presented as if they were pieces on a children’s board game.
4:30 p.m. During the summer months, a night visit to Medina Azahara is the smartest plan to avoid the midday heat. Regardless of the time of day or the time of the year when you visit the site, it offers another glimpse of Córdoba at its peak under Moorish rule. The 10th-century site is five miles outside of the city and includes a number of remarkably preserved buildings, including a palace as well as administrative and religious sites. Its museum includes a number of artifacts and offers an introduction to the daily lives of residents of the caliphate.
7:30 p.m. Although it is true that the Festival de los Patios Cordobeses is the best time to visit the courtyards of Cordoba, outside these dates it is still possible to see some of them, and typically with fewer people. Many of the patios are free to visit—just check the schedules provided by the Córdoba Tourism Office before you begin exploring.
Many of the most spectacular patios are concentrated on Calle San Basilio, in the popular Alcázar Viejo neighborhood. The one at number 44 (now the headquarters of the Asociación de Amigos de los Patios Cordobeses) was the heart of an old tenement building and it embodies the popular architecture of Córdoba, with its central courtyard serving as a social meeting point and a steep staircase that leads to an upper gallery that overlooks a well, stone basins or sinks, and a traditional patio.
The Palacio de Viana, on the Plaza de Don Gome, is another must-visit with its garden and the largest collection of patios of any building in Córdoba, with a total of 12. The outdoor spaces invite you to relax, dream, and let your imagination wander as you admire this palatial house full of objects belonging to the families who have lived there since the 15th century.
9:00 p.m. Established in 1570 by order of King Phillip II, the Royal Stables of Córdoba hosts the Pasión y Duende del Caballo Andaluz, or the Passion and the Power of the Andalusian Horse, which combines elements of classical and Andalusian horsemanship with dressage and other equestrian traditions.
10:00 p.m. It is time to say goodbye to Córdoba—and what better way to do it than with a flamenco performance at the tavern La Viuda or a final meal at the traditional restaurant Puerta Sevilla. The Moorish wonders of the city will always enchant visitors, but we suggest ending your stay with a taste of its contemporary culture and cuisine, and then start planning your return.
A version of this article originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveler España. This version was translated and adapted from the Spanish by John Newton.
