"The so-called tower of the Inquisition, also known as the Torre de los Jardines, located to the southwest and with a circular plan, is later than all the other towers of the Alcázar. It was rebuilt during the reign of Henry IV in the 15th century, probably on the foundations of a previous tower, with a different physiognomy.
On the outside it presents rope and brick ashlars, crowned with an octagonal prismatic brick body. Inside it has three floors with rooms covered with semi-circular brick domes. This tower served as an archive for the Court of the Holy Inquisition for centuries, storing valuable documents inside."
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"The Spanish Inquisition was created by the Catholic Monarchs in 1482 by papal bull, from Pontiff Sixtus IV in order to combat and curb the Judaizing practices of Spanish converts.
The inquisition in Spain depended directly on the monarchy unlike the medieval inquisition. It was implanted in all the kingdoms of Spain, including Sicily and Sardinia, which at that time belonged to the kingdom of Aragon. With the discovery of America, it was also exported to Mexico, South America and Peru. The only common institution for all Spaniards with the exception of the Crown was the Inquisition, which was used by the Monarchs as another instrument of royal power.
This palatial enclosure became gloomy and gloomy when it was ceded by the Christian Monarchs to the Court of the Holy Inquisition, becoming the seat of the Holy Office. Due to new needs, the interior of the castle was adapted to cells, offices and dependencies, thus losing its harmony and palatial character that it enjoyed with the kings.
Among the excesses committed by the Court stands out the priest from Moguer (Huelva) Diego Rodriguez Lucero appointed Inquisitor in 1499, who sentenced more than 200 people to the stake in a little less than 4 years. Especially bloody was the auto-da-fé on December 22, 1504 where 107 people were burned in the primitive Plaza and today of La Corredera, by Judaizers. The people of Cordoba, tired of the cruelty and continued mistreatment that this man inflicted on them, stormed the compound on November 9, 1506 to free more than 400 prisoners. The inquisitor, fearful of the answer, had to flee through the back door of the Alcázar to save his life, being remembered in the history of Córdoba for his cruelty."
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