"Al-Andalus living museum" in the Calahorra Tower in Cordoba

The Al-Andalus living museum is located in an old Moorish fortress, and recreates the time of maximum splendour in this Andalusian city.

The museum is in the Calahorra Tower, opposite the Great Mosque, at the end of the Roman Bridge. Its aim is to provide a recreation of the Cordoba of the period between the 9th-13th centuries, at a time of brilliant cultural, artistic and scientific achievement. Its modern facilities include a system of headphones and infrared data transfer that guide you through the eight themed rooms with dioramas.

The Calahorra Tower was built by order of Enrique II de Trastamara to defend the city when under attack from his brother Pedro I 'the Cruel'. It was used as a prison in the 18th century, a girls' school in the 19th, and today houses the Roger Garaudy Museum of the Three Cultures. The interactive guided tour illustrates the many ways in which Jewish, Christian and Moslem cultures thrived side by side in Medieval Cordoba. Visitors especially enjoy the excellent scale models of the Cordoban Mosque and other well-known Andalusian buildings and the spectacular view over Cordoba from the battlements at the end of the tour.



Room 1
The first lounge of the museum has as aim to welcome the visitors, who enter into an historical place, of dreams, where a unique language.
The visit leads us to the period which encloses the centuries IX and XIII, Cordoba was at that time the biggest city and the faith, between Occident and Orient.... here begins the real renaissance.


Room 2
On the right there is a second lounge, known as the Philosopher Lounge, in fact inside the Muslim figures such as Averroes or Ibn al Arabi, the Jewish Maimonides or the Christian Monarch Alfonso X the Wisemen.

All of them keep a special link with our city.
The ambiance and the spoken explanation are oriented to strengthen the importance of the thought of that moment, the wisdom, without being separated from the science, which are treated in the following lounges, neither the faith.


Room 3
The next lounge is the one dedicated to the Sciences and the Techniques, and in it the technological progresses are shown and they are materialized in Al andalus, such as the new techniques for the agriculture and the irrigation. There is a wonderful scale plan of the Noria mill, which was used by the Caliph Alcazar, and which is conserved by the river.

Other Cordovan figures are treated such as Abulcassis al-Zahri a surgeon and the al-Idrisi, known for his Map of the world, Tabula Rogeriana

Room 4
We go up the stairs and we arrive to the second floor, where we find the known lounge as The Summit: the palace and the mosque, referring to the city-palace of Madinat al Zahra and the Mosque Alhama of Cordoba. It stands out the reception which the caliph Abd Al–Rahman III gave to a Christian monk sent by the Byzantine Emperor

In front there is the Mihrab of the Mosque in Cordoba, carried out in Al-hakam II Period, with materials brought from the orient, thanks to the good relationships.


Room 5
In the following lounge, thanks to a wonderful scale model of the nazari palace of the Alhambra and his complete explanations and effects of light and sound, we get to entry into this marvellous place, from the sunset till the end of it, in this moment the little rooms are illuminated.
The Comares Tower, the Lounge of Dos Hermanas, the Leones Courtyard in which there is a wonderful fountain... all is studied and elaborated with details, and easily to know by the visitors. 

Room 6
It is very close to the granadine palace where the Lounge of Andalusi Music, it is a very little room very interesting. The visitor enters into the richest al-Andalus, at the same time you are under the Mihrab of the Mosque Alhama of Cordoba, one of the most beautiful and impressive places that Islam could create.

The lounge is completed with a little collection of musical instruments belonging to the Andalusi period, and witness of its
rich culture. 
 
Room 7
We arrive to the third and last floor of our tower, and in it we enter into one of the most special lounges of the museums, dedicated to the Mosque Aljama of Cordoba. An exceptional mock-up is in the room, a mock-up who looks in great detail all the outside covers and the most important points of the interior, like the Skylight of Villaviciosa or the mihrab. As in the previous case devoted to the Alhambra, the mock-up is set with phrases and high quality sound effects.

Room 8
From the lounge dedicated to the monument of our city we pass to another which shows us others that without having the artistical and historical relevance they represent the fingerprint of those who lived and shared our city.

Among the columns of the Mosque, under the red and the whiteness of their voussoirs, there are the Caliph Alcazar, the Royal Baths, the Almodovar Door, the Craft Market and the Synagogue... and the river Guadalquivir, the witness of our history. 

Room 9
We end our visit with the Live Museum of Al-Andalus, but before we have a last stop, the lounge called Multivision, where we will enjoy an audiovisual projection which is about the three cultures and it is the theme of the museum. So every hour you have this projection.

Here the visit ends, however it is better to visit it and at the same time go up to the terrace in order to enjoy the most beautiful sight of our city.

Text by: www.artencordoba.com
Photos by: www.artencordoba.com
                  www.nuriacalvodiseno.tk