Córdoba was the capital of the Spanish Muslim dynasty of the Ummayads (756-1031). Emir Abd al-Rahman began to build the Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita) ca. 785 A.D. It was added to and expanded over the next two hundred years to make it the third largest structure in the Islamic world.

The prayer hall (23,400 square meters) is filled with almost 500 hundred slender columns and superimposed striped arches; a forest sprouting from the marble floor.

Previously the site had been occupied by a Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent that had been built by the Visigoths around 500 CE. Before that, when Córdoba was a provincial capital in the Roman Empire, the site was occupied by a temple dedicated to Janus, the double-headed god of doorways and gates.

When Córdoba was captured by the Christian Spanish king of Castile, Ferdinand III, in the 13th century, the mosque reverted to a Christian sanctuary. Then in 1523, the local clergy, with the support of Emperor Charles V, built a cathedral in the middle of the mosque.