Interior of the Great Mosque of Córdoba
The interior of the Great Mosque of Córdoba is one of the most iconic sites from Medieval Europe. This painting depicts its interior, filled with a forest of columns supporting two tiers of horseshoe arches. Although they appeared in pre-Islamic architecture, the widespread use of horseshoe arches in the Spanish Islamic world makes them an instantly recognizable symbol of that culture. In the 1236 the Mosque was converted into a Cathedral and today it houses Christian iconography and shrines: the larger masonry structures seen in the background of this work.