Evolución de la Ciudad de Córdoba

8/2/2019 Evolucin de la Ciudad de Crdoba

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Historical development ofthe City of Cordova

Made by:

David Sierra Jimnez


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Contents

Urban Development of the city of Cordova. Origin and foundation. Pre-Roman Cordova.

The Capital of Betica. Roman Cordova.

The Late Raman Crisis. Visigoth Cordova.

The Capital of Al-Andalus. Islamic Cordova.

The conversion to Christianity. Early Medieval Cordova, 13th, 14th and 15thCenturies.

Modern-day Cordova.

Mild transformation. Industrial Cordova in the 19th Century.

Urban expansion. Contemporary Cordova, 20th Century.

The millennial metropolis. Strategic Cordova, 21st Century.


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Urban Development of the city of Cordova. Origin and

foundation. Pre-Roman Cordova.

Privileged geographical location, Cordoba is Located in the half way between upper and lowerAndalucia, at the meeting point of the main routes of communication between the Castilian plainsand the Guadalquivir valley and at the furthest navigable point of the Guadalquivir river, it is surelybehind the origin of o settlement whose population dotes back to the beginning of the 3rdmillennium B.C. A settlement that took advantage of the proximity of the southern flank of theSierra Morena and it provided the abundant underground springs.


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In 206 B.C., Lucio Marcio captured the Iberian city ofCorduba, paithful ally of the Carthaginiansduring the Punic Wars, and set up a camp: Castellum to the northeast an a particularly flat piece ofland in which he could control the native settlement and the lords along the Betis River.

A plethora of physical characteristics contributed to the decision: the area was fertile, it was locatednear a river so was important not just for providing water, it was also important as a natural meansof transport, sheltered from strong winds by the mountain range, with forests close by and facingSouth.

The Punic Wars

Roman settlement in CordovaRoman army in Sierra Morena


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Roman cities were laid out byapplying the same design as thecenturiato on an urban scale: theblocks al houses were square orrectangular and measured 70 x 70and 150 x 150 meters; theuniformity of the roadways couldbe interrupted by winding streets;one or a number of blocks weremodified or removed in order toaccommodate the forum and theoutline of the city wall. It wasusually rectangular and enclosed agrid of blocks.

Roman Cordova was amixed city. The city wasborn alongside on Iberiansettlement. Although thetown-planning terms saidthat was a city in whichcitys of layout was inspiredin the castum (anorthogonal shape thatfavoreced the definition ofplots and construction ofbuildings), thecharacteristics of the terrainobliged the city to adopt theshape of an irregularpolygon, o rough hexagon.

Roman House


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Roman remains are scarce today. In addition to the bridge over the Betis Guadalquivir River, onadditional three-span bridge has survived over the Pedroches stream. Of greater note are the ruinsof a temple at Claudio Marcelo street, discovered in 1916 during roadworks. This temple bears ogreat similarity to the Maison Carre at Nimes, in France. Underlying also remains the existence ofthe theatre, which had been built in such a way that it take advantages of its southern offset, withthe stage located at today's Plaza de Jernimo Pez. There are a number of theories regarding theimprint of the amphitheatre, it was a little bit further in the South, and the existence of twocircuses. One of them belows to the current San Pablo quarter and the other onewhich is outsideofthe city has walls to the northwest of the city. However, the Roman building that underlines thetrue importance of this city, even in the Late Roman period, is Maximianus Herculeus' imposing 3rd

Century imperial palace, recently discovered to the northwest of the walled city where the trainstation stands today.

Roman Temple Of Cordova

Three-Span Bridge of Cordova

Roman Bridge of Cordova


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The Late Raman Crisis. Visigoth Cordova.

The invasions that ravaged the mainland in the 3rd and 4th Centuries did not affect the Roman cityof Cordova, although it was plundered by Vandals and Suevians in the 5th Century and become ofrontier zone between the Byzantine province and the Visigoth kingdom. In 572, it was captured byLeovigildus. The city suffered the internal instability of Visigoth rule during the 7th Century and thebeginning of the 8th, resulting in o marked exodus to the countryside and a considerable decreasein the city's population.

Not much is known about the Visigoth city, its basilicas, brick or mud housing or the poor state thecity wall when the Arabs conquered it. However, traces have been found beneath the Great Mosqueof the Basilica of San Vicente, which was possibly the adaptation of o pre-existing Roman building.This would later influence the layout of the main Arab temple. Later located opposite the mosquewas the episcopum or bishop's palace which has been the permanent seat of religious andsometimes political powers ever since.

The Late Imperial Cercadillas Palace was adopted in the mid-6th Century to become the Basilica ofSan Acisclo.

The Cercadillas Palace. Century III. Rafael Hidalgo Prieto


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The period of Arab domination of the city ofCordova began shortly after the arrival ofTarik to the coasts of the peninsula in theyear 711. The invaders decided to makeCordova the capital of the IndependentEmirate in 756, with Abderrahman Ibeginning the Ommiad dynasty, passing onto the Caliphate in 912 and achieving asplendor that had been unheard of until thattime.

The Islamic city took over the existingRoman and Visigoth settlement and adaptedit to the idiosyncrasies of its own civilization.

The Islamic society evolved around religionand was devoid of any sort of municipalorganization, meaning that the city wasregulated only by tradition or by privateenterprise.


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One of the essential characteristics of the design of the Islamic city was the fragmentation andisolation of its different elements: the alcazaba or citadel, the medina and the outskirts, which, inturn, were divided into independent neighborhoods that were closed off at night due to the highlevels of citizen insecurity provoked by the absence of a municipal police force. The onlyconsolidation element in the city was the mosque and its surroundings, which became the citycenter from the religious, administrative and commercial viewpoints.

The city was formed by a group of buildings squeezed together within city walls that separated itfrom the countryside.

The Cordovan Moslem home is o reflection of the Mediterranean Roman home, its maincharacteristic being the courtyard. This courtyard or patio could also feature a garden or vegetableplot at the back and constituted the city's true breathing spaces. The building consisted of twofloors with a stark house-front, no decoration and few openings.


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The conversion to Christianity. Early Medieval Cordova, 13th,

14th and 15th Centuries.

King Fernando III's Christian troops enteredthe Ajerqua in June 1236 and its inhabitantssought refuge in the medina. They latersurrendered alter agreeing to a singlecondition; that of abandoning the city.Moslem properties became part of the royaltreasure and were shared out amongstnobles, subjects, bishops, religious orders,military orders and soldiers.

At the beginning of the early Middle Ages,the city was composed of two large walled-insections: the town or Medina, whichconserved the Moslem heritage, and theAjerqua or al-Sarqiyya. A number of theworks carried out in this uninhabited area inthe Christian period were combined withthose of the Moslem period. At the end of the14th Century, the Alczar Viejo was added, aclear example of medieval Christian building.

The streets were narrow, dirty and unpaved.Refuse was thrown directly onto the streets,converting them into o real mess of rubbishand o bed of infection. During the rainyseason the streets were inundated and thestreams that flowed within the town floodedin some places. The paving of the streetsbegan slowly in the 15th Century. The watersupply used the network left by the Moslems.The main duct collected the water near theAlbaida and piped it to the mosque. Yet

another main pipeline supplied water as faras the Alczar from the 14th Centuryonwards.


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Modern-day Cordova

Cordova's arrival in the modern age was aslow and gradual process due to the city'sdeeply rooted Spanish-Moslem tradition. Aperiod began of a general sacralization,division of classes and an economy that wasbased on agriculture. Cordova came to ademographic standstill, with economicstagnation and the paralysis of its urbandevelopment. The silk and weaving

industries flourished.

In general terms, although the city's homesdisplayed shabby and deteriorated exteriors,their interiors contained courtyards withporticoes of marble or stone columns; manyalso had gardens with flowers, orange andother types of trees and water fountains. Therooms, all designed for summer weather,

were spacious, comfortable and clean.

1960

Corredera Square

2010

Viana PalaceTriumph of St.Rafael Door of Brigde


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Mild transformation. Industrial Cordova in the 19th Century.

In contrast to other large cities that underwent transformation during the 19th Century, Cordovaremained unchanged behind the some city walls and on the some area marked out by the Romancolonizers, with lime change to the original Islamic street plan. The few industrial developmentswere to be found between the city center and its nearest outskirts, whilst the increase in populationwas absorbed within the town itself thanks to numerous large empty spaces, vacant religiousproperties and the many single family homes that were converted into multiple dwellings.

The population of Cordova in the early 19th Century amounted to 40,000 inhabitants, most ofwhom worked in agriculture, craftwork and as servants. The economic situation was precarious,with scanty industry and o weak business structure. Cordova showed no sign of the urban changesthat the new bourgeoisie demanded and that were being carried out all over Europe. Theintroduction of the railway in 1859 was the only incentive taken.

The most important new buildings in 19th Century Cordova were the Grand Theatre and thepalaces of the Count of Torres Cabrera, the Dukes of Rivas, Valdefloro and Burgos.

The majority of the buildings in the city were distributed over two stories; those with one or threeor more were o small minority. The home continued to follow the age-old formula and as such theurban fabric was made up of a mixture of different types of residences with one commondenominator: the courtyard house or casa-patio. Possessing different sizes of plots and containingone or various courtyards and gardens, different social classes lived side by side in single familyunits built with supporting walls and roofed with tiles.


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The arrival of the 20th Century did not bring about any major changes in town planning. Someroods were realigned, others opened and mild attempts were mode at creating leisure areas, andnot much more. Any growth in population was absorbed by the old town, which was the object ofnumerous operations. New neighborhoods sprung up on the outskirts, generating considerablegrowth in the development boom of the sixties.

The consolidation of o new business center to the northwest of the historic quarter coincided withthe establishment of o residential area for the well to do; this lead to the idea of urbantransformation through certain surgical operations, such as new openings and realignments. Thisformula was also applied in the city quarter located closest to the railway station, a true pretext for

launching a modernization process that would consolidate the urban expansion process around thecrossroads of the new Gran Capitan and Tejares avenues.

Only two of the city's gateways from previous centuries remain, the Puerta del Puente and thePuerta de Almodvar. However, the growth of the town was to come up against two nearlyunsurpassable barriers during the century, one natural and one manmade: the river to the Southand the railway to the North.


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Most attempts of controlling and organizing the growth of the city, be it through planning orregulation, rarely resulted in anything very specific, until the 1956 Land Low brought aboutCordova's first-ever General Town Plan, or PGOU, drawn up in 1958. With provision for 350.000inhabitants, the land was split up in dear reflection of the layout of the old town, which became thegeographical and symbolic city center.

The architecture of the 1900s displayed particular ups and downs in its qualification and adaptionto the stylistic trends that were going at any given moment, with o certain offset in theirincorporation.

A remarkable exception to this was the architecture of Rafael de La Hoz Arderius, whosecommitment to the Modern Movement and positive execution presented the city with buildings ofgreater or lesser importance but of generalized architectural impressiveness, such as the Chamberof Commerce, The General Hospital, the Salesian Convent, the El Aguila beer factory, etc., whichare all examples of his work.

At the end of the century, bridge plans remained untackled. The authors of the AVE railway stationalso drew up the RENFE plan, the century's most ambitious town-planning project in Cordova. Theunderground stretches of the railway and the adaptation of land into a great lineal park by GimnezSoldevilla, P. Pea and A. Peo, meant the joining up of the city center and the neighborhoods onthe slopes of the mountain range.

The General HospitalThe Chamber ofCommmerce


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The millennial metropolis. Strategic Cordova, 21st Century. The city began to regain its true vocation as the major city in the fertile Guadalquivir Volley. This

occurs not only thanks to the city's geographical position, with the river becoming mare and moreintegrated into city life, but because of the network of roads that convert Cordova into a crucialroad hub between Andalusia and the rest of Spain. A new bridge over the Guadalquivir River andthe western ring road establish this position even more firmly.

The efforts to elevate the city's architectural tone in keeping with administrative initiative manageto join public tenders with private development, achieving highly satisfactory results such as sixblacks of homes in the RENFE area, a worded to the teams of Gabriel Rebollo, Pedro Caro,Francisco Daroca, Alvaro Torres and Gonzalo Martn.

Train RENFE The Plan Renfe of Cordova


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Bibliography

Architectural Guide of Cordova.

Evolución de la Ciudad de Córdoba

Documents

Transcript of Evolución de la Ciudad de Córdoba