Great+Mosque+of+Cordoba

=**Great Mosque of Cordoba**= The Great Mosque of Cordoba has had many uses or many religions. It started out as a Pagan temple, then around the year 600 it became a Visigothic Christian Church. After that, the Moors came and made it into a Mosque. But of course the Romans had to take over and add on to the Mosque and build a giant cathedral within the middle of the place. The building today remains a Catholic cathedral even though Muslims in recent years have been petitioning the church and the Vatican for the right to pray in the Mosque, but they have been denied repeatedly.

The Mosque's importance is as a place of worship for the people of Cordoba. The building was a place of great importance in the Muslim community of Andalusia for over three hundred years. In Cordoba the Great Mosque was seen as the heart and central focus, and was important to people of all faiths. The main prayer area, called the prayer hall contains 500 columns that support it. This area has served several purposes over time - as a teaching area, an center for local government, and for prayer.

During the Reconquista, in 1236, King Ferdinand III of Castile captured Cordoba. The citizens of Cordoba, Jews, Muslims, and Christians together, pleaded with the new Christian rulers to spare their beautiful mosque and not tear it down to build a Christian church - as was happening in other towns in Andalusia. Ferdinand agreed and instead built the Christian chapel within the walls of the mosque, converting the Muslim minaret to a Christian bell tower. Three centuries later, during the height of the Inquisition, many mosques and Jewish temples were torn down throughout Spain. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was spared this fate, likely because of its conversion to a Christian church. It remains one of the finest examples of Moorish art and architecture on the planet.