CORDOVA (Latin, Corduba ; French, Cor doue), a city of Spain, capital of a province of its own name in Andalusia, is situated on the southern declivity of the Sierra Morena and the right bank of the Guadalquivir, 75 miles north-east of Seville, and not far from one of the junctions on the railway system of Spain. Its walls, erected on Roman foundations, and principally Moorish in their superstructure, enclose a very large area; but much of the space is occupied by garden-ground cleared from the ruins of ancient buildings. The streets are for the most part so narrow and crooked that it would be much more descriptive to speak of them as lanes; and, with the exception of those in the Plaza Mayor, the houses are greatly dilapidated. As every building, however, is profusely covered with whitewash, there is little difference on the surface between the oldest and the most modern specimens. The southern suburb communicates with the town by means of a bridge of sixteen arches across the river, exhibiting the usual combination of Roman and Moorish masonry, and dominated at the one end by an elevated statue of the patron saint, St Raphael, whose effigy is to be seen in various other quarters of the city. The most important of the public buildings are the cathedral, the old monastic establishments, the churches, the bishop’s palace, the lyceum, the city hall, the hospitals, and the colleges. The old royal palace (Alcazar) is in ruins,—only one wing being sufficiently entire to serve the purpose of a prison. The cathedral, which throws all the other churches into insignificance, was originally built as a mosque by Abderrahman I. on the site, it is believed, of a Roman temple. The exterior, with the straight lines of its square buttress towers, has a heavy and somewhat ungainly ...appearance; but the interior is one of the most beautiful specimens of Moorish architecture in Europe. Passing through a grand courtyard about 500 feet in length, shady with palm, and cypress, and orange-trees, and fresh with the full flow of fountains, the visitor enters a magnificent and bewildering labyrinth of pillars. Porphyry and jasper and marbles of many a tint are boldly combined in a matchless mosaic. Part have come from the spoils of Nîmes or Narbonne, part from Seville or Tarragona, some from the older ruins of Carthage, and others as a present to Abderrahman from Leo of Byzantium Of different heights, they have been adjusted to their present standard of 12 feet by being either sunk into the soil or lengthened by the addition of Corinthian capitals Twelve hundred was the number of the columns in the original building; but many have been destroyed, and, according to some accounts, less than 700 remain. They divide the area of the building, which measures 395 feet from east to west by 356 feet from north to south, longitudinally into nineteen and transversely into twenty-nine aisles—each row supporting a tier of open Moorish arches, which in its turn gives the basis for a second tier with its pillars resting on the keystones of the tier beneath. The full height of the ceiling is thus about 35 feet. The Moorish character of the building was unfortunately impaired in the 16th century by the formation in the interior of a crucero or high altar and choir, in the Roman style, by the addition of numerous chapels along the sides of the vast quadrangle, and by the erection of a modern tower in room of the old muezzin. The crucero in itself is no disgrace to the architect Hernan Ruiz, but every lover of art must sympathize with the rebuke administered by Charles V. to the cathedral authorities: “You have built here what could have been built as well anywhere else; and you have destroyed what was unique in the world.” Magnificent, indeed, as the cathedral still is, it is almost impossible to realize what the mosque must have been w en the worshippers thronged through its nineteen gateways of bronze, and its 4700 lamps, fed with perfumed oil, shed at once light and fragrance through its brilliant aisles. Of the exquisite elaboration bestowed on the more sacred portions abundant proof is afforded by the small heptagonal chapel of the Mihrab, roofed with a single shelllike block of snow-white marble, and inlaid with Byzantine mosaics of glass and gold.
Cordova was celebrated in the time of the Moors for its silversmiths, who are said to have come originally from Damascus; and it exported a peculiar kind of leather which took its name from the city, wshence we have still the word “cordwainer.’’ These industries, however, disappeared with the race that introduced them. In modern times, especially since the opening of the railway to Cadiz and Seville, its industry has developed in various directions, and flax, linen, silk, and woollens are now manufactured. Population, 42,000.
Corduba, probably of Carthaginian origin, was occupied by Marcus Marcellus in 152 b.c., and shortly afterwards became the first Roman colony in Spain. From the large number of men of noble rank among the colonists, the city obtained the title of Patricia,; and to this day the Cordovese pride themselves on the purity and antiquity of their descent. The city was the usual residence of the proctor of the province of Baetica, and the seat of one of the four provincial assizes. In the wars between Caesar and the sons of Pompey, Corduba espoused the cause of the latter. After the battle of Munda, it fell into the hands of Caesar, who avenged the obstinacy of its resistance by putting 20,000 of the inhabitants to the sword; but in the time of Strabo it still ranked as the largest city of Spain. Under the Goths Corduba maintained its importance; and in the person of Hosius, its bishop, it furnished a president for the Council of Nice. Under the Moors it was at first an apanage of the caliphate of Damascus, but it soon became the capital of the Moorish dominions in Spain. At the death of Abderrahman, it is said, perhaps with Arabic exaggeration, to have contained within its w ills 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900 baths, and numerous public libraries; whilst on the bank of the Guadalquiver, under the power of that monarch, there were eight cities, 300 towns, and 12,000 populous villages. In the beginning of the 13th century the .Moorish empire became dismembered, and fell ar easy prey to St Ferdinand of Castile in 1236. Since that period Cordova has gradually declined; and in modern times it has never recovered the assault of the French under Dupont in 1808, who stormed and afterwards pillaged the town. In the Roman period Cordova was the birthplace of Lucan and the two Senecas; and in modern times it numbers among its celebrities Avicenna, Averroes, Juan de Mena, Ambrosio Morales, Cespedes the painter, and Luis de Gongora. It also gives its name to the famous captain Gonzalo de Cordova.
CORDOVA, or Cordoba, the chief town of a province or the sume name in the Argentine Republic, 246 miles by rail from Rosario, in 31° 24 ’ S. lat. and 64° 9'W. long. Tt lies in the very heart of the country, and occupies the bottom of a considerable depression to the south cf the River Primero. The streets, which cut each other at right a igles, are for the most part unpaved, but are furnished with side paths of brick; and the houses are almost all of one story. The cathedral of St Peter, built by the Italian Jesuit Primoli, ranks among the finest churches in South America, though the interior hardly corresponds to the promise of the outside; and the church of the convent of Santa Catalina is also worthy of notice. The educational institutions are of great and increasing importance, including a university established in the Colegio San Carlos, or old Jesuit monastery, which was built by the same architect as the cathedral; an ecclesiastical seminary, supported by the Government; a national observatory, instituted in 1871; and an academy of sciences. The cabildo or Government-house (adorned with a pillared portico), an orphan asylum, two hospitals, and several convents complete the list of the public edifices. The population in 1869 numbered about 28,500, consisting of halfbreeds of various degrees, with a considerable predominance of the Spanish type. Since the opening of the railway to Rosario in 1870, the trade of the city, always of some importance, has begun to develop. The exports are mainly hides and wool, and the imports miscellaneous manufactures. Cordova was founded by Cabrera in 1573, and made the capital of the province of Tucuman by Philip V.; its main importance arose from its being the centre of the Jesuit missions of South America and the principal seat of learning on the continent. The revolutionary wars for a time destroyad its prosperity; but latterly it has much recovered. In 1871 it was the seat of a national exhibition.
CORDOVA, a town of Mexico, with about 6500 inhabitants, in the province of Vera Cruz, and 57 miles inland from the city of that name. It is situated in a very fertile district near the volcano of Orizava. and trades in tobacco, coffee, sugar, and cotton. Its streets are well paved and regularly laid out; the most of its houses are built of stone, and the cathedral, which occupies one side of a large central square, is a fine edifice, with a highly ornamented interior. The neighbourhood abounds in antiquarian remains, and at Amatlan de los Reyes especially there are traces of a temple and a cave, with fragments of carving and pottery.
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