Spain has a large number of jewels spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and one of them, without a doubt, is Cordoba. This city, pride of Andalusia and our country, is the only one in the world with four World Heritage Sites. For this reason, every year millions of people from all over the world visit this city that is pure history: in the Roman Empire it was one of the most important cities of the time and, after the Muslim invasion, it was the capital of the Emirate of Cordoba.
According to the data provided by the Municipal Institute of Tourism of CordobaIn the first six months of 2024, a total of 136,267 tourists visited the city of Cordobawhich represents an increase compared to last year of 13.98%. Of this total, 51% were national visitors and 49% of people were foreigners, an increase of more than 10% in both cases. This commitment of the municipality to quality tourism seems to be winning in the last months of the year, in which everything indicates that a historical record will be broken.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit Cordoba per year for all the benefits offered by a city where culture, history and rich gastronomy come together in one of the best cities in Europe that usually has its high temperature during the popular festival of the patios of Cordobayour fair or your Easter weekwhich is a festival of national tourist interest and also considered one of the best in the country.
Cordoba, the world heritage city
Cordoba can also boast of being the only city in the world to have four assets which are World Heritage. UNESCO, the United Nations cultural, scientific and educational organization responsible for recognizing these distinctions, granted this privilege in 1984 to the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba and extended the title of World Heritage Site to the urban ensemble that surrounds it in 1994. . In 2012, the Festival of the Courtyards of Córdoba was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and in 2018, the Caliphate city of Medina Azahara was also awarded the title of World Heritage Site, Córdoba being the only city in the world to have four insignia.
Thus, the four properties of Cordoba registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites are: The Mosque-Cathedral (1984), the historic center that surrounds it (1994), the Festival of Los Patios (2012) and Medina Azahara (2018). “The World Heritage category is granted with the aim of protecting, identifying and preserving cultural or natural ancestry considered particularly valuable. Holding this title implies a series of rights and obligations that this city deserves,” reports the Cordoba tourism website.
Cordoba has an infinite number of monuments that constitute the heritage of its history in which Mosque-Cathedralone of the largest Muslim temples in the world. In this place was the Basilica of San Vicente of Visigothic origin and after the Muslim conquest of the city it was built by Abderraman I. During this period it was enlarged up to three times until the Christian reconquest that created the cathedral. A must-see is the tower and the Patio de los Naranjos. At its time it was recognized as the best place of tourist interest in Europe and the sixth in the world.
At the foot of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba is the historic center, also a World Heritage Site, which is a mixture of all the religions that have inhabited throughout history, the Jewish quarter being one of the most characteristic. In these streets and throughout the city, in the first half of May, the Terrace Festivalalso recognized by UNESCO and attracts thousands of tourists. The last World Heritage property is the Medina Azaharawhich is the city that Abd-al Rahman III ordered to be built at the foot of the Sierra Morena, located eight kilometers from Cordoba.
Besides these monuments, Cordoba It also has its Fernandina churches through which you can walk a route, its numerous doors and walls as well as countless museums where you can appreciate the culture that the city overflows. This and a rich gastronomy that venerates ham, salmorejo (the best in Spain) and flamenquines.
