Córdoba was known as the Jewel of the (Medieval) World. It was a multicultural hot pot of international trade, intellectual growth, and cross-cultural harmony. Which all came to an absolute end with the Spanish Inquisition but the peaceful turnover of the city left it's architectural beauty in place.
The Romans had loved Córdoba. In 152 BC they had founded the elegant city of Corduba, and made it the capital of their Hispania Baetica. Seneca, the philosopher who went on to tutor the insane Emperor Nero, was born here, as was the poet Lucan; for the Romans, Córdoba was not some barbaric outpost, like Londinium or Tingis (modern-day Tangiers), but a centre of their civilisation, where true Romans lived and raised their families.
The significance of Córdoba in the world's history springs from two things. First, it is the place where, for a few centuries, Islam and Christianity coexisted relatively peacefully, in the years before the more brutal religious extremism of the Crusades. But second, it is where the culture of the Arabs was brought into contact with the west, where Islamic thinkers gave consideration to the works of Aristotle, where they carried the flame of these works while the rest of Europe struggled through the dark ages. Islam too has played its part in the long history of rationalism; as Richard Fletcher has put it: "Modern science begins in 13th-century Europe, based firmly on the plinth furnished by translations from Arabic and Greek."
By the 9th century, Córdoba was the largest and richest city in Europe, with a tradition of learning and discourse that overshadowed Baghdad (the city that had taken Damascus's place as heart of the Islamic empire). It holds that place no more, but it is a wonderful city to visit today.
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