Cordoba (Córdoba in Spanish) is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the Guadalquivirriver, it was founded in ancient Roman times as Corduba by Claudius Marcellus. Its population in 2008 was 325,453.
Today a moderately-sized modern city, the old town contains many impressive architectural reminders of when Cordova was the thriving capital of the Caliphate of Cordova that governed almost all of the Iberian peninsula. It has been estimated that Cordova, with up to 500,000 inhabitants in the tenth century, was the largest city in Western Europe and, perhaps, in the world.
Cordova was the capital of the Roman province ofHispania Ulterior Baetica. Great Roman philosophers like Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, orators like Seneca the Elder and poets like Lucan came from Roman Cordoba. Later, it occupied an important place in the Provincia Hispaniae of the Byzantine Empire (552-572) and during the Visigoth period.
It was captured in 716 by the Muslims, and Cordova became capital during the Umayyad Caliphate, the period of its apogee, with a population supposedly ranging between 250,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. However, most scholars feel that these numbers are historically inflated. In the 10th century, Cordova – called قرطبة (Qurţuba) in Arabic – was one of the most advanced cities in the world, as well as a great cultural, political and economic centre. The Cordova Mosque dates back to this time. In 1236 it was captured by King Ferdinand III during the Spanish Reconquista.
With one of the most extensive historical heritages in the world (declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO December 17, 1984), the city also features a number of modern areas, including the districts of Zoco and the railway station district, Plan RENFE.
The regional government (the Junta de Andalucía) has for some time been studying the creation of a Cordova Metropolitan Area that would comprise, in addition to the capital itself, the towns of Villafranca, Obejo, La Carlota, Villaharta, Villaviciosa, Almodóvar del Río and Guadalcázar. The combined population of such an area would be around 351,000.
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