8 Best things to see & do in Cordoba

One of the world’s greatest buildings: a thousand-year-old love letter from the glory days of Moorish al-Andalus.

Madrid may have the biggest stars, but Andalusia was its birthplace, and the tradition of Flamenco pulses through Andalusia’s blood. Book in for a passionate night of guitars, singing, stamping steps and colourful, swirling dresses.

Very professional Flamenco club founded back in the 1990s near La Mezquita with only 50 seats, but plenty of passion; several of its seven talented artists have won national prizes for their guitar-playing and dancing.

Next to La Mezquita, a small hammam in a traditional Andalusian brick, tiles and garden setting. The massages are excellent including the hot stone bed option; it’s so relaxing your two-hour slot will seem to fly by. Book online here.

Andalusia’s first food court occupies a 19th-century forged iron building, where 20 stalls sell delicacies from around the world, along with local goodies (the seafood is exceptional); tables in the gardens wait for tasting them in-situ.

The partially excavated and reconstructed halls, mosque, gate, porticoes and gardens of a 112-hectare mysterious palace city. It was built in the 10th century by Abd-ar-Rahman III, the first Caliph of Cordoba; now a World Heritage Site.

Also known as the Mercado de la Artesania, this patio house in Calle Judio hosted the first handicraft shops in Spain. Come here to peruse the city’s traditional arts – leather, ceramics and silver – and watch silversmiths make delicate filigree.

For two weeks in May, home-owners in Cordoba’s old neighbourhoods show off their gorgeous white-washed courtyards to the public, filled with flowers in a mind-bobbling explosion of colour and fragrance.