Michele Lamprakos: Memento Mauri, Gebunden

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An in-depth study of the long and contested history of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordóba.

The Umayyad Mosque of Cordoba is a famous monument of Islamic civilization, but for eight centuries it has been the city's cathedral. Unlike other mosques on the Iberian peninsula, which were demolished and replaced by churches following Christian conquest, Cordoba's Great Mosque survived. But in the early sixteenth century, a choir-presbytery complex began to rise amidst the magnificent hall of columns. The massive structure took a century to complete, emblazoning the skyline with a symbol of Christian triumph. Yet inside, much of the surrounding Islamic fabric was retained and even rebuilt.

This strange hybrid structure is one of Spain's great contradictions, a source of ongoing controversy up to the present day. Michele Lamprakos unravels this architectural mystery, exploring cycles of patronage, demolition, erasure, and restoration as a barometer of changing attitudes toward the Islamic past. She shows that architectural change not as a linear process, but rather an ongoing and selective dialogue with the past, each layer building upon, suppressing, editing, and reinventing what came before. Yet through it all, the Great Mosque remains a liminal beauty, a potent reminder of a past that could not be erased.