Spanish diocese criticized for not publicizing cathedral’s Islamic past
December 17, 2014
Stating that tourism is being harmed, the government of the southern Spanish region of Andalusia has criticized the Diocese of Córdoba for not doing more to highlight the Islamic past of its cathedral.
Around the year 600, a Catholic church was built on the site of a pagan temple. Following the Moorish conquest, the Mosque of Córdoba, begun in 784 and completed in 987, was built on the site of the church.
In 1236, when Spanish Catholics again assumed control in the area, the mosque became a Catholic church. It is now the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, and the government has criticized the diocese for referring to it simply as a cathedral, and not as a former mosque as well.
A cathedral spokesman called the government’s complaint “an artificial controversy,” according to the Associated Press.
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