The completely walled fortress city reflects the feeling of insecurity experienced by the medieval man.

The Andalusi system of fortification was characterised by the incorporation of a number of defensive elements apart from the curtain wall, namely the barbicans, the “albarrani” watchtower and the angled doorways.

Barbicans

Low antemural, with or without towers, that partially or totally surrounds the curtain wall to the city. The true defensive element was the space or fosse between the two walls and this was what was called the barbican. Said term also applied to the antemural. Its function was to prevent the enemy from directly attacking the curtain wall.

Albarrana Tower

Watchtower which extends outward more than normal. Always located outside the walled city, these towers served as a lookout for the vigilance and defence of the city. They could also be connected to the curtain wall by another wall, bridge or underground passageway.

Angled doorways

Defensive system to prevent access by the enemy, consisting of right-angled access through the doorway before entering an open space inside. The doorways were defended by strong gates at each entry point, trapping the enemy inside, where he was overcome by the defence.

Coracha

Wall running perpendicular to the curtain wall, the purpose of which was to ensure a supply of water in the event of siege. The coracha extended to the river where an Albarrana tower not only protected the water supply, but also served as a defensive bastion for the city or castle.

Wall construction technique

The materials used basically in the construction of the walls were stone and earth while brick was sometimes used.

The technique for making the large blocks that would comprise the wall consisted of the fabrication of formwork wooden block moulds with different planks. The large block was fixed with ropes to give consistence to the mould. The spaces left on the sides were also covered with wood. The building components, such as earth, gravel, stone and lime, and other components, like fragments of pottery, were then poured into the fabricated moulds.

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The city gates – bad – performed two functions. On one hand, they served as an entrance to the city like a customs control as we understand it today. On the other, they were a tax collection point as taxes on inbound goods were charged and sometimes on outbound goods as well.

The gates were locked at night, leaving the city cut off from the exterior. In the event of siege the tendency was to brick them up, leaving only one operative. It was also usual for iron plates to be nailed onto the door leaves in order to prevent them from being set on fire by the enemy.

As a general rule, the different gates around the entire perimeter of the walled enclosure – medina – were connected by the city’s more important streets.

The number of gates reflected the city’s importance. They were the most vulnerable part of the defensive system, which was why the search for defensive elements and artefacts was an ongoing endeavour.

The visitor will enter another world in the very distant past, a world of another era.

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Once the visitor to Ciudad Al ManSur crosses the West Gate of the city, he will enter another dimension, another time.

Ciudad Al ManSur offers its visitors the opportunity to experience history in motion and to live the moment as an occasion for enjoyment. They may opt for a simple visit as an onlooker, going around the park and enjoying the events, or a total immersion as another inhabitant of this singular city.

Visitors may opt for a visit a la carte, playing a role as a character, experiencing to the full what life was like in the Cordoba of the 10th and 11th Centuries. They may dress and act like an inhabitant of the city, playing a leading role, creating and moulding their own experience.

Through a complete staging of this event, the visitor will be immersed in a plot that will take him all over the city.

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A Moorish city basically comprised two very distinct parts, the medina – madina – and the suburbs (arrabal) or extramural area.

The medina was the enclosed city, a space in which all the population’s activity was pursued, namely residential, commercial and religious. Within this walled enclosure there was a mosque, the open-air market, the alcazar and the public baths.

The suburbs comprised all the constructions that were outside the wall, which functioned independently, having a different jurisdiction.

As a general rule the medinas had very irregular structures with narrow winding streets and the houses seemed to turn their backs on the streets since, in consonance with the Muslim insistence on privacy, family life was a private matter, concealed from the exterior.

The hub of Andalusi economic life took place in the medinas. Heirs of the Roman-Visigoth era, the cities were nuclei of handicraft production, but also trade centres. Peasants would come to the cities to sell animals and farm products. Inside the cities, business was transacted in the markets and in the streets with small shops grouped together according to specialist fields or professions. Both the handicraft and commercial shops were State assets or mortmain assets, consequent on which their management was supervised by the public treasury.

Most of the urban development in Al-Andalus was undertaken during the 10th and 11th Centuries, which was its most prosperous period. Together with the ongoing defensive needs, cities were founded for representative and strategic purposes, as in the case of Medina Azahara, in Cordoba, a need or desire of a caliph who wanted to amaze the world.

The medina of Ciudad Al-ManSur has its main streets that start from the welcome space and city gates, within which we find the open-air market, the Alcazar, the Alcaicería, the Public Baths and endless secondary streets and alleyways full of life.

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From a construction point of view, the Moorish house did not have a typified design. This could be due to the heterogeneity of the invading peoples. In fact, in most cases the Arabs adopted the building techniques and models of the invaded.

What does prevail in this residence, however, are two basic social principles, namely the concept of the residence as a protective place, where priority was given to privacy, and the seclusion of the woman in her own quarters, separate from those of the rest of the family.

A typical house -dar- consisted of a number of rooms that comprised the family home. It was a refuge for its inhabitants, their source of strength, and it never had windows looking onto the streets. The exterior was protected by Roman concrete walls with wooden formwork, a technique very much used in the Iberian Peninsula.

The classical residence was built around a central courtyard surrounded by rooms in consonance with the design of the Roman house. All the windows of the rooms looked onto this courtyard and an Arab residence never opened directly to the outside world, thereby protecting its privacy.

Most Arab houses were initially small, but were always built with a view to possible extensions. They were accessed by a passageway from the bailey in order to conceal from the eyes of the passers-by the way of life of their inhabitants. This led to a courtyard that could have several porticos or arcades of columns or pillars. Most of these courtyards had a reservoir with a well or cistern.

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Their everyday life, their daily chores, their costumes, their social structures, their popular philosophy and so forth constitute essential elements to gain an insight into any people.

One of the first tasks undertaken by an Andalusi woman in the morning consisted in kneading dough for the bread, the basic food in this era. Once the dough was prepared, she covered it with a napkin for the baker’s boy to take it to the oven. In return, the baker would keep a few rolls which he would later sell to the labourers of the market.

There was usually a public oven or furn in the Andalusi medinas and extramural suburbs in which, as well as baking the bread, other food previously prepared at home was cooked.

To produce flour, the Andalusis used water mills, nearly always located on the banks of rivers. Several remains of these are left, such as the mill of the Albolafia in Cordoba. This mill, of Roman origin, was to be converted into a noria to be able to transport the water to the caliphal quarters.

The historical role of the Noria Mill of the Albolafia is very important since the Andalusis also used it to produce paper, one of the most thriving industries of the era. With this mill, Cordoba became the first place in Europe to manufacture paper, which had been so far imported from China.

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Andalusis considered water to be an essential element.

The advanced hydraulic techniques for the supply of water, baths, gardens, fountains, and so forth, comprised the basis of the standard and quality of life (public baths, acclimatization of vegetable species, the sanitation of houses, and so forth).

The Umayyad rulers of Al-Andalus centred their policies on stimulating anything in relation to agricultural development. In this respect, the Andalusis were masterful in the use of water, vital for this “industry”. The noria was one of their main legacies that contributed to a large extent to the development of this prosperous sector. The Arabs called it the Naura (the one who weeps) because of the sound made by the noria on turning.

This is reflected through-and-through in Ciudad Al-ManSur with its fountains and acequias (irrigation channels), homes with their own lavatories, streets with drainage, the irrigation channels at full flow and the noria replete with clear water.

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As a symbol of caliphal power, the mosque was the most significant building of an Islamic city.

The size of the mosque was concordant with the importance of the city.

In a typical Moorish city, there were two types of mosques, the masyid and the masyid yámi or great mosque, the latter being the most important of the medina. The size was consonant with the size of the population since the mandatory Friday communal prayer took place there.

Not only were religious functions performed in the mosque, but so also were others of a political, economic and social nature. Civil disputes were also settled here in its courtyards as well as notarial matters, contracts of marriage and public debates.

The origin of the mosques was, apparently, the house of the prophet Muhammad himself in Medina, which had a roofed section and another open-air section. This simple scheme was gradually developed until it became a perfectly functional temple appropriate for the celebration of prayer on the part of the community.
The Great Mosque of Cordoba was the first to be built in Andalusi territory. It is impressive with its almost five hundred columns and superimposed arches, fruit of the works of Abd al-Rahman I, Abd al-Rahman II and al-Hakam II, and finally in 987, Abu Amir al-Mansur (Latin and Spanish, Almanzor) himself. The Cordoba Mosque is not only a symbol of Al-Andalus, but also a fundamental monument of the entire Islamic West and one of the most amazing ones in the world.

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A skyway that connected the palatine residence to the great mosque: a kind of security passageway for the emir or caliph.

This skyway or sabat was used as a bridge between the palace and the mosque so that the caliph could cross over without any inconvenience and without endangering his life.

Although the Cordovan ruler could go at any time to the great mosque to pray, he normally only did so for the Friday prayer at midday. He arrived in the company of his entourage and the top state dignitaries, chamberlains and advisers as well as the cadis, police heads and the sahib al-madina or prefect of the city, all of whom had access to the maqsura to pray together with the emir or caliph. While they prayed, the doors were kept closed and protected.

The maqsura

Enclosure in the mosque reserved for the caliph. It was introduced by the Umayyad caliphs in the East in the early 8th Century and its main function was to isolate the ruler from the rest of the congregation and protect him from any possible attacks. The sabat became an efficient complement to the maqsura.

The first Moorish sabat was built under the orders of the emir Abd Allah (888-912) and connected the Alcazar to the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

With the extension of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the 10th Century, the caliph, al-Hakam II, ordered the construction of a second maqsura that led to a passageway connecting the alcazar with the mosque and that had several rooms for the use of the caliph.

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