The Catholic Church has been accused of glossing over the Muslim identity of the Great Mosque of Cordoba with a visitor centre that emphasises its Christian origins.
The Church’s planned centre for the mosque, which has served as a cathedral since the Spanish city’s reconquest by Christian forces in 1236, aims to “correct” what it deems to be an overly Islamic vision of the city’s past.
“The need to redesign the entire space [of the mosque area] derives from the finding that Cordoba is marked with a very powerful cultural label: that of a Muslim city,” said a report by Demetrio Fernandez, the Bishop of Cordoba.
The mosque has served as a cathedral for hundreds of years and is used for traditional processions at Easter
PABLO BLAZQUEZ DOMINGUEZ/GETTY
“The cultural reductionism is so strong that it has the capacity to eclipse the brilliant Visigoth, Roman and Christian
