Title: 4 The Search for Evidence: The Relics of Martyred Saints and Their Worship in Cordoba after the Council of Trent
Abstract: The city of Cordoba in southern Spain is famous today for its Muslim history, having been between 929 and 1031 the capital of the Umayyad caliphate, its importance symbolized by its Great Mosque.Because the Mezquita was already regarded as one of the most accomplished monuments of all time, it was not destroyed after the 'Reconquista' of Cordoba by the Christian king Fernando III of Castile in 1236, but converted into the centre of the Cordoban diocese, the cathedral.In the sixteenth century, Emperor Carlos V made a significant modification to the expansive Muslim structure, ordering a nave to be built in the Renaissance style in the centre of the building.Despite these changes, this cathedral remains to this day the embodiment of the splendor and refinement of Muslim art in Spain and a testament to the richness of its past.But for the Cordoban Catholics of the early modern period this was not always easy to accept.In fact, during the Counter-Reformation, the local Catholic authorities in Cordoba were called upon to prove the continuity of the Christian past in spite of major evidence to the contrary.To them it became intolerable that their town, a part of the monarchy ruled by the Catholic king Felipe II, symbolized the dark ages of Spanish Christianity to the entire Catholic world.In the context of the sometimes tense relationship between local and universal religion,2 from the last quarter of the sixteenth century to 1 I want to warmly thank Katrina B. Olds and Guy Lazure for their comments and critiques, indispensable in the preparation of this chapter and their help with translations.2 On this topic, see