Cordoba lies just over a hundred miles miles north of Malaga. We took the high speed train from Maria Zambrano station. The station connects with the Malaga metro system from Fuengirola to Almeria in the east, and just fifteen minutes from the airport every twenty minutes or so. The station includes a large shopping centre and there are plenty of places for a drink and snack. The bus station is right next door. We had snacks and coffee at an outdoor kiosk, the sort of atmospheric and affordable feature that’s such a loveable part of Continental cities.

Maria Zambrano gave her name to Malaga’s main station in 2007 when the Malaga to Madrid high speed rail line opened. She was an essayist and philosopher who was born in Velez a couple of miles east of Malaga in 1904. She went into exile after the fall of the Republic at the end of the Spanish Civil War, only returning when Franco died in 1984. She died six years later and is buried in Velez.

The train journey to Cordoba takes just an hour and runs about every hour. It’s a rocket into Spain’s inner space. We climb beyond Malaga city limits, heading ever upward into the coastal mountains. The Montes de Malaga rise to over a thousand metres and are surrounded by a large Natural Park. Jagged peaks form a scenic backdrop to the well cultivated hills and valleys of olive farms.

We finally descend into the valley of the Guadalquivir, leaving the train at Cordoba before it heads on to Madrid. Cordoba’s modern station is bright and efficient. We take a taxi into the labyrinthine Old Town. This area is largely pedestrianised, but our driver takes us with dizzying pinball eccentricity through narrow laneways to our destination. Our hotel, Palacio del Corregidor, has a wonderful tiled courtyard echoing the Moorish style knitted into the fabric of the city. 

Nearby is Plaza Corredera, a colourful square built in the 17th century. There is a daily market, and bars and cafes flow from its arcades into the open air. The atmosphere is pleasantly informal and cocooned from the brash modernity of city life. We dine and drink there regularly, afternoons and evening. It’s convenient and inexpensive. The street performers are a varied bunch. One dire performer is clad in cheap tigerskin and you’d pay him to go away. Good juggler though. On another night, with stars and streetlights merging, the glow is enhanced by a guitarist with a modern reportoire including Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here; which, of course, read my thoughts.

A maze of lanes ambles south towards the river. Plaza del Potro is a hidden treasure, and just beyond a short avenue is shaded under trees. There are a number of bars and restaurants along here, so relaxed that time stops still, as it often does in the best of Spain. Along the river into the ancient city centre streetlife resumes. The Guadalquivir marks the southern edge of town. Andalusia’s mighty river rises in the Sierra de Cazorla, about two hundred miles to the east. Already mighty by the time it reaches Cordoba, it meanders west towards Seville and then south to meet the Atlantic at Cadiz. It is over four hundred miles long. In Roman times the Guadalquivir was navigable as far upstream as Cordoba and remained so into the Middle Ages. Today, only as far as Seville 

The Romans established Cordoba around 200BC. By the turn of the Millennium it was a major city of Roman Hispania. A few of its remnants survive. The remains of the Roman Temple were unearthed in the 1950s with the expansion of the City Hall on Calle Claudio Marcello, a busy commercial thoroughfare dividing ancient and modern Cordoba. The Temple was built in the reign of Claudius in the first century AD. A magnificent marble structure in its day it stood proud on a high plinth. Its platform and a few columns are preserved; development of the site is ongoing

The Roman Bridge crosses the river at the entrance to the city. Initially built in the 1st Century BC, this was the only city bridge spanning the river until the mid twentieth century. The Moors undertook a major reconstruction in the 8th Century AD. There are sixteen arches spanning the 250 metres to the far bank. The Puerta del Puente on the city side and the Tower of Calahorra on the far side were added in Medieval times as fortified city gates.

The river banks are lined with ruins of ancient watermills dating back to Moorish times. These were used variously for irrigation, to ground flour and as cotton mills. They persisted into medieval and modern times where some saw use in electricity generation. The last were extinguished in the 1940s. The Albolafia Mill is the nearest to the bridge, and there are eleven mills in all.

With Cordoba it is best to let the lanes lead you where they want to go. A vague detour leads us to a courtyard fronting the Church of San Francisco. People are gravitating towards it by some strange magnetism. Groups congregate in the little square, chat and smoke before disappearing within. Inside, excitement mounts. A large group of musicians fills the chancel, facing the body of the church now packed. Then the music begins. It is the week before Semana Santa and the Brotherhood rehearse the music they will play to accompany the Thronos they will carry through the city on the big day. Two thronos are installed along the Nave. The massed brass instruments strike a tone that is sombre but uplifting. I feel united with all here, rising with the intense emotion of the music. When it finishes there is a breath, applause filling its emptiness like thunder. 

We are struck by how lucky we were to chance upon this. Yet it is unremarkable in a way. Throughout Spain local communities have been persistent in their unique commemmoration of Holy Week and Catholic feasts for eight centuries

Cordoba is now a city of 350,000 people. It was once one of the largest cities in Europe, under the Moorish rulers of the Ummayad dynasty. The Caliphate of Cordoba controlled almost all of Iberia from 750 until 1031when it split into several kingdoms. The Reconquista of 1236 brought the city under the crown of Castille. Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos lies just past the Bridge and served as residence of Ferdinand and Isabell as they pushed towards the final expulsion of the Moor at Granada in 1492. It was built in 1358, by King Alfonso, and though a military fortress initially, it also embraces a more flamboyant Mudejar style in its magnificent gardens, ponds and courtyards. 

Mudejar refers to the art and design of Islamic craftsmen who remained following the Reconquista. It is a distinctive feature of much that is wonderful in Spanish architecture of the era. The Mezquita Catedral is a shining jewel forged in the collision of two cultures. The Great Mosque was begun in 784 and was for long the largest mosque in the world. After 1236 it was appropriated for Christian use. It is remarkable that so much of the fabric of the ancient building remains. The three hundred foot tall bell tower was developed from the old Minaret with an entrance gate beneath in the Mudejar style. An open square runs the length of the complex, shaded by orange trees with pools and fountains where the Moslem faithful washed before prayer. The single story interior is supported by a forest of ornate columns, eight hundred in all, creating an effect close to infinity; or heaven, I suppose. Around the outer walls many chapels have been added over the centuries, the first in 1371. The Cathedral itself was begun in the early sixteenth century, rising as if organically from the low lying mosque. It is topped by an Italianate dome. 

Asides from being a place of prayer, the Mezquita Catedral is a huge draw for tourists. The crowds gather early, though the space is so large that it was not too hectic during our visit. We got tickets online the day before. Be warned though. Numbers pick up in high season, and even a few days later we noticed the crowds grown bigger.

Another major attraction in Cordoba is the Festival de los Patios held during the first fortnight in May. Private patios are opened for view, and the city is particularly packed. But there are always spaces in Cordoba to allow one step into a different time. The Jewish Quarter is a wonderful maze of white streets west of the Mezquita. There’s a museum and the old synagogue from the fourteenth century survives. Another culture woven into the rich fabric of Andalusia. Muslim, Christian, Jew and Gitano leave their mark not just in the stone and style, but in the music and the mind, and deep in the heart of us all.