Baths and bulls (and a house) - Córdoba

Next I headed to the Caliphal Baths, believed to have been built as part of the original (and no longer extant) Alcázar complex in the 10th century and for private use by the Caliph and his family. There were some 300 public bath complexes across the rest of the city for everyone else!

The baths were built in 3 successive iterations but each time took a similar format to traditional Roman or Arabic Hamman baths, with a room for undressing, cold, warm and hot rooms with different pools and treatments. One version of the warm room included a small enclosure with a jet of warm water from overhead, much like a modern waterfall shower! The warm and hot rooms had underfloor and wall hypocaust heating systems.

I wandered along by the city walls, passing a monument to an Islamic philosopher from the 10th century and another to Seneca, the philosopher who was born in the Roman city in 4 BC.

My next stop was a 10th century house in the Jewish quarter, showing what was said to be a “typical” home from the 10th century. I’m not sure how typical and it had the feel of an old house full of older things, where the owners were happy to charge a few € for folk to look around their house!

Lastly, it was time for the bulls and the Museo Municipal de Arte Taurino (Museum of the Art of Bullfighting). I’d read somewhere that this celebrated the animal and the skills of past bullfighters but recognised the modern criticism of bullfighting as a cultural phenomenon. I’d say the first and second messages were loud and clear, but the third passed me by! The section on bulls, their origins and natural habit etc was interesting, albeit I instinctively kept a watchful eye on the life size replica bull at the far end of the gallery, with a projected background of several more bulls in a large meadow. I’m sure it moved nearer when I wasn’t looking.

I then found a restaurant for dinner and then began to walk back to the station in good time for the fast train back to Sevilla, and via the edge of the modern city centre. As I passed an ancient church, I saw someone enter through the main door, and thought it was late for a church to be open and so I followed, and found myself part way through Mass. I took a seat and enjoyed being amongst a crowd of worshippers, even through I was mostly able to do little more than watch and listen to the service, but stumbling over vague recollections of part of the congregational responses without any service book in front of me.

I continued to the station, located the right platform and passed through security in order to wait for 2155 to Seville and, before I knew it, we arrived back in Seville.Read more