Public Space After the Ecclesiastical Disentailments in Cordova

Abstract

Cordova undergoes a major transformation in its city planning in the 19th century, after more than 500 years, as a result of one of the most relevant economic and social processes in the history of Spain: the eclesiastical disentailment. The city, on its almost 225 hectares, had 32 conventual complexes within its walls. They were, talking about size, really important Christian buildings, built in a city with an intricate and twisted street layout, inherited from the Islamic population who inhabited the city for 5 centuries. Changes experienced affected significantly the urban morphology. Thus, the research goes deeply into that process. After studying the 46 monasteries that existed in Cordova at the end of the Modern Age and their following evolution, we focus on some of the most important public spaces, derived from that transformation, that exist in the historic center of the Cordova, in order to understand the origin of the city’s current configuration. After analysing all the convents, we distinguish two situations: on the one hand we have the ones that maintain their original use, on the other hand those that have lost it. Of this second group, some of them are preserved adopting different functions while others disappear. Those are the ones that are of special interest to us, as they have led to the appearance of some of the most emblematic public spaces in Cordova within the walls. A study of these urban changes has been carried out, methodologically relying on documentary research, historical layout and bibliographic. Therefore, we have been able to conclude that, of the 37 convents in the city center (5 of them bordering the outside of the wall), 26 lost their original use, of which 10 caused important changes in the plot, such as the opening of new avenues, squares or even neighbourhoods. The impact of these changes and how they had an essential influence on a key process of redefining the city throughout the 19th and 20th centuries will be highlighted.