Cordoba's main attraction is the fascinating mosque, built from the 8th to the 10th centuries. Considered one of the best examples of Moorish religious art in Spain, it was declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. This enormous mosque - the third-biggest in the world - has countless columns topped with superimposed arches and magnificent mosaics, some of which were given by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.
This mosque initiated the so-called Califal style, which combined Roman, Gothic, Byzantine, Syrian and Persian elements and was the starting-point of all Arabian-Hispanic architecture of the centuries to come, up to the Mudéjar-style of Arabians living in the Spain reconquered by Christians.
After the reconquest of Cordoba in 1236, a baroque church was built inside it and today it is the Cathedral of Cordoba.