It’s only a two-hour train ride from Madrid to Cordoba, but the atmosphere is miles apart. First of all, the weather. Whereas it was mild in October in Madrid, sunny Cordoba, much further south, felt like Florida.
And the sunshine is not only outdoors. The storied Andalusian temperament is obvious as soon as you arrive. Smiling faces and a general atmosphere of good cheer prevail – this despite the nearly 20 percent unemployment rate in Spain.
When we got off the train we took a bus to the Old Town, with its 1,000-year-old Jewish Quarter. But once at the bus stop, we did not know which way to head. Seeing our plight, a woman offered to guide us. Indeed, five minutes later we stood before the massive walls of the Old Town of Cordoba, which touched the greatest figures of Hebrew poetry and Jewish literature and thought in the Middle Ages: Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Judah Halevi, Abraham ibn Ezra and Maimonides.
We entered through the thick stone gate and found our hotel, the five-star Las Casas de la Juderia, a renovated old palace with gorgeous interior courtyards, pools and greenery, typical of Spanish houses in Andalusia. The helpful staff – and the luxurious rooms and service – made our three-day stay a delight.
Cordoba is inextricably bound up with Maimonides, the great luminary of Jewish law, teaching and medicine. And indeed the city shows its pride with a beautiful statue in the Juderia, the Jewish Quarter.
Walking along the narrow twisted lanes in the quarter that still preserves its original layout thrusts the visitor back to the era when Jews lived and thrived here starting in the early 8th century. Cordoba became a center for in- tellectual ferment in the 10th century thanks to the efforts of Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a leading physician, translator, diplomat and treaty negotiator for Caliph Abd al-Rahman III. Hasdai attracted philosophers, poets and scholars to Cordoba and personally supported a number of them.
While on his way to Granada the great Hebrew poet and philosopher Judah Halevi stopped in Cordoba and won a poetry writing contest. Another shining light of the Golden Age in Spain who lived here for a while was Halevi’s close friend Abraham ibn Ezra, poet, Bible commentator and Hebrew grammarian.
Maimonides, who was born in 1135, spent his childhood in Cordoba until the invasion of the Almohades, who forced the Jews to convert to Islam and destroyed the Jewish community. Maimonides’ family fled to Egypt, where he later became physician to the ruler of Egypt.
Attracting scores of visitors daily is the still extant synagogue on Calle Judios (Jews’ Street), built in 1315 by Isaac Moheb ben Ephraim when the Christians ruled Cordoba. Declared a national monument in 1885, it has a high ceiling and intricately decorated walls in the Arabic style, but it is not overly spacious. Other synagogues surely stood here to accommodate all Jews on Sabbaths and holidays.
Nearby is a beautifully wrought statue of Maimonides, which seems to have some magical properties among the common folk. We happened upon two French school girls rubbing their palms on the statue’s brass shoes. “It has a calming effect on the spirit,” they explained.
Along the same street is a private museum known as Sephardic House. Tickets are rather expensive, but this two-story building is quite attractive on the inside, with a lovely court-yard, arches and trees. One major flaw is that the displayed items lack dates and provenance.
Especially bothersome was a huge key on display in a glass case above the cash register (which was endlessly busy) labeled “a key to the house of a Sephardic Jew” from pre-1492. These keys, part of the legends surrounding Sephardic Jewry, are supposedly emblematic of their longing for their old homes from which they had been forcibly driven. All guides I spoke to had heard of these keys, but no one had ever seen one. Scholars total- ly reject this notion. The huge key is probably from some old castle.
Cordoban Jewry came to a virtual end with the persecutions of 1391, when they, along with Jews of Toledo and Seville, were massacred by Christian fanatics. Today, Cordoba has just a few Jewish residents and no functioning synagogue.
The Tourist Board of Cordoba, led by the energetic Rafael Perez de la Concha Camacho, has been instrumental in publicizing the glories of the Jewish past; it sponsors conferences, Sephardic music festivals and other events that accent the contributions of Jews to Spain.
Walking in Cordoba and seeing the sights is a delight. Revel in the beauty of the Mezquita, the huge (18,000 capacity) and artistically designed old mosque that has become a cathedral. Even if you wander through the alleys and meandering lanes you will never get lost, for a helpful Cordoban will assist you.
Be sure to attend the famous flamenco show at the Tablao Cardenal, right across from the Mezquita. Here you see the superb dancers and singers presenting classical flamenco. When we entered, the host immediately welcomed us with “Shalom! Berukhim ha-ba’im. Since I heard you are taking an interest in the Jewish past,” he said, “I thought I would greet you with a modern Jewish expression.”
I strongly recommend taking a side trip to Abd al Rahman’s Madinat al Zahara, about 20 minutes from Cordoba. This large archeological wonder, consisting of workmen’s buildings and Abd al Rahman’s palace, is a carefully excavated and beautifully preserved site. And remembering Hasdai ibn Shaprut’s close links to the Caliph makes the visit all the more memorable.
Curt Leviant’s most recent book is the comic novel “A Novel of Klass.” Erika Leviant contributes travel articles and articles about art to various periodicals.
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