The fortress served as one of the primary residences of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
It is a building of military character whose construction was ordered by the King Alfonso XI of Castile in the year 1328, on previous constructions (the Islamic-era Umayyad Alcázar, also the previous residence of the Roman Governor and the Customs). The architectural ensemble has a sober character in its exterior and splendid in its interior, with the magnificent gardens and courtyards that maintain a Mudéjar inspiration.
The Alcázar has been declared a Cultural Interest Heritage since 1931. It forms part of the Historic Center of Córdoba that was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.
History
In early medieval times, the site was occupied by a Visigothic fortress. When the Visigoths fell to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and the beginning of Al-Andalus, the governors appointed by the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus established themselves in the same area. The Umayyads fell to the Abbasid Caliphate and the surviving member of the Umayyad Dynasty, Abd ar-Rahman I, fled to Córdoba and established the Umayyad Emirate. Abd ar-Rahman I and his successors, who eventually created the independent Caliphate of Córdoba, were responsible for the construction of the Alcázar which became the official residence and seat of power of Al-Andalus. The city subsequently flourished as a key political and cultural center, and the Alcázar was expanded into a very large and widely used area with baths, gardens, and the largest library in the West. Watermills on the nearby Guadalquivir powered water lifting to irrigate the extensive gardens. The palace complex was also equipped with a bathhouse (hammam), known today as the Caliphal Baths (Baños Califales), which dates from the reign of al-Hakam II and was later expanded under the Almohads (12th to early 13th century). In the 10th century the official seat of government was moved to the site of Madinat al-Zahara outside the city, but this site was in turn ruined during the collapse of the caliphate in the early 11th century, causing the local seat of government to return to the Alcázar.
In 1236, Christian forces took Córdoba during the Reconquista. In 1328, Alfonso XI of Castile began building the present day structure on part of the site for the old fortress. Other parts of the Moorish Alcázar had been given as spoils to the bishop, nobles, and the Order of Calatrava. Alfonso's structure retained only part of the Moorish ruins but the structure appears Islamic due to Alfonso's use of the Mudéjar style.
The Alcázar was involved in the civil war where Henry IV of Castile faced a rebellion that backed his teenage half-brother Alfonso. During the war, the Alcázar's defenses were upgraded to deal with the advent of gunpowder. At the same time, the Alcázar's main tower, now known as the "Tower of the Inquisition" was constructed.
Henry's successor, Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand, used the Alcázar for one of the first permanent tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition and as a headquarters for their campaign against the Nasrid dynasty in Granada, the last remaining Moorish kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. The Inquisition began using the Alcázar as one of its headquarters in 1482, converting much of it, including the Arab baths, into torture and interrogation chambers. The Inquisition maintained a tribunal here for three centuries. Boabdil was held prisoner here in 1483 until he promised to make Granada a tributary state.In 1486 or 1487, Christopher Columbus had his first audience here with the Catholic Monarchs (Isabella and Ferdinand) in order solicit support for his expedition to find a western sea route to Asia. The monarchs retained his service by placing him on their payroll, but did not endorse his expedition until after the conquest of Granada in 1492.
The Alcázar served as a garrison for Napoleon Bonaparte's troops in 1810. In 1821, the Alcázar became a prison. Finally, the Spanish government made the Alcázar a tourist attraction and national monument in the 1950s. The Alcázar's grand gardens, in their current form, also date from the mid-20th century.
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