page_title: Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, Cordoba , Spain
context_page_description: The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, also known as the Alcázar of Córdoba, is a medieval alcázar located in the historic centre of Córdoba, next to the Guadalquivir River and near the Grand Mosque. The fortress served as one of the primary residences of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
  It is a building of military character whose construction was ordered by the King Alfonso XI of Castile in the year 1328, on previous constructions. The architectural ensemble has a sober character in its exterior and splendid in its interior, with the magnificent gardens and courtyards that maintain a Mudéjar inspiration.
  The Alcázar has been declared a Cultural Interest Heritage since 1931. It forms part of the Historic Center of Córdoba that was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.
context_section_description: In early medieval times, the site was occupied by a Visigoth fortress.  When the Visigoths fell to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, the emirs of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus rebuilt the structure.  The Umayyads fell to the Abbasid Caliphate and the surviving member of the Umayyad Dynasty, Abd ar-Rahman I, fled to Córdoba.  Abd ar-Rahman I's successors established the independent Caliphate of Córdoba and used the Alcázar as their palace. The city subsequently flourished as a key political and cultural center, and the Alcázar was expanded into a very large and widely used area with baths, gardens, and the largest library in the West. Watermills on the nearby Guadalquivir powered water lifting to irrigate the extensive gardens.
  In 1236, Christian forces took Córdoba during the Reconquista.  In 1328, Alfonso XI of Castile  began building the present day structure on part of the site for the old fortress.  Other parts of the Moorish Alcázar had been given as spoils to the bishop, nobles, and the Order of Calatrava. Alfonso's structure retained only part of the Moorish ruins but the structure appears Islamic due to Alfonso's use of the Mudéjar style.
  The Alcázar was involved in the civil war where Henry IV of Castile faced a rebellion that backed his teenage half-brother Alfonso.  During the war, the Alcázar's defenses were upgraded to deal with the advent of gunpowder.  At the same time, the Alcázar's main tower, now known as the "Tower of the Inquisition" was constructed.
  Henry's successor, Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand, used the Alcázar for one of the first permanent tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition and as a headquarters for their campaign against the Nasrid dynasty in Granada, the last remaining Moorish kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula.  The Inquisition began using the Alcázar as one of its headquarters in 1482, converting much of it, including the Arab baths, into torture and interrogation chambers.  The Inquisition maintained a tribunal here for three centuries. Boabdil was held prisoner here in 1483 until he promised to make Granada a tributary state. When Boabdil refused to surrender his kingdom in 1489, the Christians launched an attack.  Isabella and Ferdinand's campaign against Granada succeeded in 1492.  The same year, the monarchs met Christopher Columbus in the Alcázar as he prepared to take his first voyage to the Americas.
  The Alcázar served as a garrison for Napoleon Bonaparte's troops in 1810.  In 1821, the Alcázar became a prison.  Finally, the Spanish government made the Alcázar a tourist attraction and national monument in the 1950s.
caption: The Alcazar
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