Old Town Córdoba

Old Town Córdoba is charming but small. We saw most of it yesterday in a few hours. Today, we got a chance to retrace some of our steps to get a better look at sights we had either tabled for today or had missed yesterday.

The Jewish Quarter has one of the three best preserved synagogues in Europe. It was built in 1315 and had been in continuous use until the Jews’ expulsion from Spain in 1492.

A closer look reveals how intricate the carvings are

The statue of Moses Maimonides is just 30 yards from the synagogue.

Maimonides was an astronomer, physician, philosopher, and ultimately a great influence on Jewish code of ethics and law. Rubbing Moses Maimonides’ shoe is believed to help raise one’s knowledge (I made sure to rub the other foot).

The streets of Old Town are flanked by whitewashed walls with colorful trims

Calle de Flores with a view of the bell tower in the background

The hunt for the sculptures belonging to the two other great minds of Córdoba brought us just outside the city wall.

Seneca – the Roman Stoic philosopher who stoically took his own life after he was ordered by Nero to do so after Seneca was wrongly suspected of betrayal.

Averroes – the Muslim lawyer who contributed to early Islamic philosophy through the introduction of Aristotelianism

With the hunt over, we had no more agenda left on the list. The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets, and poking our heads into open patios.