Multicultural Synagogues of Europe
Synagogue of Córdoba – Córdoba, Spain
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Synagogue of Córdoba was built in 1315 on the modern-day Calle Judíos (Street of the Jews) and was paid for by wealthy patron Yitzhak Moheb. It was converted into a Christian church in 1588, and later declared to be a national monument in the nineteenth century. As a result of this declaration (and its earlier conversion into a church), the synagogue is extremely well-preserved, with all of the original architecture and most of the ornamentation still intact. The synagogue’s design comprises the architectural traditions of two Jewish diasporas, one from the Middle East and one from Andalusia. The Jews of Al-Andalus, a Muslim-ruled area in the Iberian Peninsula, were forced to flee in 1086 when the Almoravids arrived and persecuted both Jews and Christians. The Jews primarily flocked to the Northern Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, and took the traditions of Jewish Al-Andalus with them. The intersection of the two diasporas in the planning and ornamentation of one structure creates an incredibly interesting conversation about the convergence of different Jewish communities in one religious space.
FORMAL QUALITIES
The Synagogue of Córdoba’s architecture, like most synagogues built in Castile in the fourteenth century, was heavily influenced by Christian restrictions on Jewish worship so as to prohibit Jewish religious spaces from rivalling Catholic churches. These restrictions dictated both the interior and exterior design characteristics of the synagogue, as well as its size: the synagogue consists primarily of one small prayer room measuring 6.95 x 6.37 meters, entered through a small courtyard and vestibule. The synagogue is almost unnoticeable from the outside, as its architecture blends in with the surrounding buildings – both a safeguard against antisemitism and an obeyance of Christian regulations – but its interior is lavishly decorated with intricate epigraphy and Islamic-inspired crenellations. Instead of grand exteriors, the Iberian Jews who built these synagogues expressed their faith through ornamentation, consisting mostly of stuccowork with geometric, architectural, and vegetal motifs and biblical inscriptions. This ornamentation tied the synagogues to the Islamic architecture surrounding them, connecting two faiths that were persecuted under Christian Castilian reign. The synagogue represents a rare example of Andalusian Jewish architecture built in the Mudejar tradition, connecting the structure to the Islamic art and architecture of Al-Andalus and the ornamentation of buildings such as Alhambra and the Great Mosque of Córdoba. The eastern wall of the synagogue, housing the heikhal, is decorated with elaborate Mudejar stucco paneling. The extremely high ceiling of the space is angled upwards, as per Spanish synagogal tradition. The interior architecture, including the design of the balconies of the ladies’ gallery on the second floor, is meant to evoke the holy city of Jerusalem. The line of inscription framing the balconies mimics the outline of the battlements of a fortified gate. This practice, known as micrography (images drawn using the words of a text), was frequently used in Jewish manuscripts of the period and would likely have been familiar to contemporary visitors. Beyond these balconies, the ornamentation of the southern wall represents the city gate of Jerusalem.
REASON FOR INCLUSION
The Synagogue of Córdoba represents a dialectic between an embrace of Jewish religious and ethnic identity and a desire to meld with neighboring Islamic culture. For instance, Arabic epigraphic ornamentation of Psalm 22:18 decorates the alcove of the tevah, from where the Torah is read. This inclusion indicates the pride that the Jewish diaspora in Castile – after having been forced out of Al-Andalus – had in their Andalusian roots. However, the synagogue’s deliberate design choice to emulate the city of Jerusalem, the holiest place in Judaism, evokes a desire to recreate a religious refuge for the Jewish people of Castile that reminds them of their holy land. The synagogue has many iconographic and architectural similarities to the structures of Alhambra and the Great Mosque of Córdoba, with the latter representing an important chronological and geographic connection. As a result, this synagogue could be readily inserted into an art historical curriculum alongside discussions of the Great Mosque of Córdoba, to ensure that Jewish architecture is adequately represented alongside other religions.
SOURCES
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Mann, Vivian B. “Decorating Synagogues in the Sephardi Diaspora: The Role of Tradition.” In Synagogues in the Islamic World: Architecture, Design, and Identity, edited by Mohammad Gharipour, 207-225. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
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Muñoz-Garrido, Daniel. “The Prevalence of Islamic Art amongst Jews of Christian Iberia: Two Fourteenth-century Castilian Synagogues in Andalusian Attire.” In Gharipour, Synagogues in the Islamic World, 127-144.
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