Permeability and Resistance: The survival of the "Mosque" of Cordoba in the Modern Age

In this presentation, he will examine the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba at the threshold of the early modern period, focusing on the controversy surrounding the construction of the cathedral crucero within the former mosque in 1523. Drawing on archival research and an interdisciplinary approach, the study reconstructs the debate between the cathedral chapter and the local urban elites. The conflict is interpreted not only as a political and institutional dispute but also as a reflection of changing attitudes toward the Islamic architectural past. In this context, the reaction of Córdoba’s nobility reveals an early modern engagement with the monument, shaped by a vernaceular understanding of the architecture.

José Miguel Sambucety Rueda is a PhD Candidate  at the Università IUAV di Venezia. He holds a degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Universidad de Sevilla. He further specialized through the Master in Restauro Architettonico at the Università Roma Tre, where he was awarded the HNA Foundation Excellence Scholarship. His doctoral thesis, under the supervision of Massimo Bulgarelli and Bianca de Divitiis, focuses on the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba during the transition between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, investigating the Renaissance reception of the monument and the phenomena of permeability and resistance to foreign architectural languages through an ethnological analysis of territorial-secular identity.