The bliss of solitude

Have you ever been in a changing room with two mirrors on parallel walls? That's a bit what Córdoba's Mezquita is like.

I'd been putting off seeing the Mezquita because everyone kept telling me how incredible it is, and I belong to that jaded, nothing-new-under-the-sun generation that thinks it knows everything. In other words, I had low expectations. Besides, I'd seen plenty of photographs of its iconic red-and-yellow arches, and I wasn't too impressed.

But photos of the arches don't give perspective, and no image can recreate the feel of a space. And to me, that's what the Mezquita is about. All those enormous, repeating arches in the vast room of the Mezquita make you feel minuscule. The emphasis is on nature; though some of the stone is painted, most of the geometric carvings bring out the natural beauty of the rock. The building has a great deal of natural light as well.

The low point of the Mezquita is the assortment of Catholic art, which might be quite beautiful in a medieval cathedral but looks very out-of-place in the ancient, minimalist building. Whereas the Arabic writing and designs are gold-gilded or have a smidge of silver, the Catholic areas display piles of pure-gold artifacts, like the lair of a really tacky dragon.

There's also a slab of stone carved with a large number of names. Beneath the names, the stone reads:
Sacerdotes diocesanos que dieron su vida por Cristo en la persecucion religiosa 1936-1939*

This "religious persecution" was the Spanish Civil War.

*"Diocesan priests who gave their lives for Christ in the religious persecution from 1936-1939"