The neighborhood on foot

Start at Jugo

1. 1Jardines de Orive
2. 2San Pablo
3. 3Roman temple
4. 4San Miguel
5. 5Cristo de los Faroles
6. 6Santa Marina and Santa Isabel
7. 7Palacio de Viana
8. 8Plaza de San Agustín
9. 9San Lorenzo
10. 10La Magdalena
11. 11Casa de las Campanas and Siete Revueltas
12. 12San Pedro
13. 13Plaza de la Corredera

These are the main stops of the four short loops, one after another and without going back to Jugo in between: West, North, East and South. What you need to know about each stop is in its own loop.

And you're back at Jugo

Here's your pit stop. A glass of whatever's open, the tapa of the day or something more to eat, no reservation needed. See wine and tapas →

Start at Jugo

1. 1

   Jardines de Orive

   A park in the middle of the old town, opened in 2004. Step inside to see the chapter house of the old San Pablo convent, from the 16th century and never finished, plus the Roman and Almohad remains the digs turned up. Next door, the Orive palace.

2. 2

   San Pablo

   A church from the 13th and 14th centuries with a Mudéjar coffered ceiling and, inside, the Virgen de las Angustias by Juan de Mesa, from the 17th century.

3. 3

   Roman temple

   Two thousand years on a street corner: the temple on Calle Capitulares, begun under Claudius and finished under Domitian, came to light in 1951. You can see it from the street.

4. 4

   San Miguel

   A Gothic church with a big rose window on the façade and a Mudéjar dome over the baptismal chapel.

5. 5

   Cristo de los Faroles

   On Plaza de Capuchinos, the 1794 Christ with its eight lanterns. Best seen at dusk.

Along the way

• Plaza de la FuensecaIts fountain, from 1495, had so little flow that it was almost always dry, and the mocking name stuck (fuente seca means "dry fountain"). Today it pours fresh water from four bronze spouts.
• Cuesta del BailíoThe must-take route up to the Faroles. The Palacio del Bailío is here, built between the 16th and 18th centuries.
• Plaza de SénecaNamed after the philosopher, who was born in Córdoba; there's a statue of him.

And you're back at Jugo

Here's your pit stop. A glass of whatever's open, the tapa of the day or something more to eat, no reservation needed. See wine and tapas →

Start at Jugo

1. 7

   Palacio de Viana

   The palace of the courtyards: a dozen of them, plus a garden. It's the visit that takes the longest.

2. 8

   Plaza de San Agustín

   A neighborhood plaza with its church, from 1328: a jewel of Córdoba baroque. The frescoes you see were brought back by the 2007–2009 restoration.

3. 14

   Piedra Escrita fountain

   A neighborhood fountain at the corner of Moriscos and Cárcamo.

4. 6

   Santa Marina and Santa Isabel

   The church of Santa Marina, from the late 13th century, mixes late Romanesque, Gothic and Mudéjar, with a big rose window. On Plaza del Conde de Priego, the monument to Manolete (this is "the bullfighters' neighborhood") and, taking up a whole side, the convent of Santa Isabel de los Ángeles, from 1491.

5. 15

   Torre de la Malmuerta

   An octagonal tower of the Axerquía city wall, built between 1406 and 1408. Legend has it the name (roughly, "wrongly killed") comes from a woman killed by her husband over a false accusation.

6. 16

   Plaza de la Lagunilla

   A neighborhood plaza, on the way home.

And you're back at Jugo

Here's your pit stop. A glass of whatever's open, the tapa of the day or something more to eat, no reservation needed. See wine and tapas →

Start at Jugo

1. 9

   San Lorenzo

   A three-arched portico and an enormous rose window. The tower still holds the core of the minaret from the mosque that stood here before.

2. 10

   La Magdalena

   One of the first churches built in the city. Its right-hand side door is the oldest in Córdoba. Take a look from outside.

3. 17

   Plaza de las Tazas

   Next to La Magdalena, with traditionally laid-out streets and courtyard houses.

4. 11

   Casa de las Campanas and Siete Revueltas

   A lane with a great name (Siete Revueltas means "seven twists") and a Mudéjar manor house that used to be a bell foundry, hence its name. The arched façade is still standing.

5. 18

   Santiago

   Built over an Umayyad mosque: the minaret is now its bell tower.

6. 19

   Patio de la Palma 3

   A late-18th-century manor house with a stone portal. Look from the street: someone lives there.

And you're back at Jugo

Here's your pit stop. A glass of whatever's open, the tapa of the day or something more to eat, no reservation needed. See wine and tapas →

Start at Jugo

1. 13

   Plaza de la Corredera

   The only square plaza mayor (main square) in Andalusia, from 1683, and much bigger than it looks. Its name comes from the bullfights (corridas) once held here. The Sánchez Peña market building was once a jail and later a hat factory with the city's first steam engine.

2. 20

   Plaza de las Cañas

   A plaza a stone's throw from the Corredera.

3. 12

   San Pedro

   A minor basilica. There's been a church on this spot since the 4th century; the current one keeps two medieval doorways and a façade by Hernán Ruiz II.

4. 21

   Plaza del Potro and Julio Romero Museum

   A fountain from 1577 with a colt on top gives the plaza its name. In the back, the Posada del Potro, a 15th-century inn that shows up in Don Quixote; Cervantes lived in Córdoba as a boy, from 1553 to 1557. Today it's the Fosforito Flamenco Center. If you've got time, the same plaza has the Julio Romero de Torres museum and the Fine Arts Museum.

Along the way

• Plaza de Jerónimo Páez and Archaeological MuseumAbout five minutes from El Potro: the Renaissance palace of the Páez de Castillejo family, from the 16th century, built over the Roman theater.
• Cuesta de Pero MatoClimbing up between the Roman theater and the plaza. It's named after a 16th-century doctor, and legend says he killed his wife when he found out she was having an affair with one of the Páez, his neighbors. A legend, mind you.
• Fundación Antonio GalaOn Calle Ambrosio de Morales, in the former convent of Corpus Christi, from 1609. You enter through a compás (a convent forecourt) with an arcade of 17th-century frescoes.
• Compás de San FranciscoThe former cloister of the convent of San Pedro el Real, from after 1236; only the church survived. The fountain is from 1983, copied from a 19th-century engraving, and in May it fills with flowers.
• Calleja del TorilThe natural way out of the Corredera. As far back as 1482 it was used to pen the bulls for the plaza's festivals of bulls and cañas (a mounted cane game).
• Calle San Fernando and Arco del PortilloAlso known as Calle de la Feria. Its two-spout bronze fountain is from the 18th century and was a watering trough until 1796; it still bears an inscription punishing anyone who ties animals to it or damages it. Nearby, the Arco del Portillo and the 15th-century palace of the Marqueses del Carpio, part of which you can see from the street.

And you're back at Jugo

Here's your pit stop. A glass of whatever's open, the tapa of the day or something more to eat, no reservation needed. See wine and tapas →