Australia is home to an indigenous culture which is almost unrivalled in its longevity.
(most Australians ignore – or are simply ignorant of – the existence of the San. Southern Africa’s so-called “Bushmen” also have a continuous culture which predates every “Western” one by tens of thousands of years. It is entirely possible that San culture may be even older than is Aboriginal Australia’s)
In terms of imposing buildings and “historic” streetscapes, however, Australia is a very young country.
Not so Morocco and Spain!
This post’s photo encompasses more than two thousand years’ worth of construction, conflict, destruction and renovation.
The deck on which my feet stood at 3.41 pm on 11 November 2025 was of early 21st century vintage, when this very old bridge’s most recent major “renovation”/“restoration” project occurred.
In the 20th century a second bridge was built over the Guadalquiver River; until then – for nearly two millennia – the Roman-built bridge had enjoyed a monopoly of all foot and vehicular traffic across Cordoba’s river.
Early this century the “old” bridge became “pedestrians only”.
The statue on the old bridge was erected in 1651; it is the oldest of Cordoba’s many statues of San Rafael – the city’s Guardian Angel.
On the “old city” side of the river, dominating the skyline, is the world’s only such edifice – Cordoba’s Mosque-Cathedral.
Worship-wise, it has been “Christian, only” since 1236 AD.
The original structure – a very grand mosque – was built four and a half centuries earlier, in the last quarter of the 8th century AD.
The final defeat of Cordoba’s “Moorish”, Muslim rulers in 1236 immediately saw the mosque repurposed as a cathedral, but for some time the original building remained substantially intact.
Over the next several centuries, various Christian chapels and features were inserted, but it was not until the 16th century that the grand act of religious triumphalism/ wholesale vandalism commenced – the insertion into a grand, exquisitely proportioned mosque of a colossal, elaborate, and utterly over-the-top, Renaissance/Mannerist/Baroque monstrosity.
The local city council should be remembered/commended for their opposition to the project!
Even the Catholic monarch who approved it came to rue his decision.
Reportedly, Charles V said this:
You have built what you or anyone else might have built anywhere; to do so you have destroyed something that was unique in the world.
Cordoba – most especially, its mosque-cathedral – will receive a deal of attention in future multi-image posts.