Una mezquita de «nueve bóvedas» en Córdoba. Estudio arquitectónico de un edificio desaparecido en 1725

Abstract

After the Castilian conquest of Córdoba in 1236, a small mosque next to the Guadalquivir River was converted into the parish church of San Nicolás de la Ajerquía. The building was extended until the mid-sixteenth century and repeatedly transformed over time. However, the ancient Islamic building existed until its demolition during the important reforms of the period 1725-1727. There are several documentary records of those years, and also a plan sketch preserved in the parish archive. However, this mosque has gone virtually unnoticed by the specialized historiography, perhaps because the limited and ambiguous data hinder a proper valuation of its architectural form. In this study the original drawing has been analyzed, contextualizing it with several plans and historical documents. This has produced a hypothesis about the size of the mosque's prayer hall, its approximate orientation, as well as its interior architectural organization: an almost square plan, subdivided into nine areas covered with vaults. Therefore, it could be framed within a type of mosque detected long ago by Creswell, who called it "ninedome- mosque". The building would be the only known example of such architectural type in Córdoba.