Oriental Porch in Medina Azahara, Cordoba (Spain)

Oriental Porch or Great Porch


        Beyond the Basilical Lounge and the nearby structures, towards east there is aOriental Porch Plan ramp with two broken down parts separated by doors, with mantelpieces on both side, which are conserved hinges and jambs. The floor of the street is made with limestones, drawing squares filled with dark stones of the woodland, as in the original part. The street was thought for being used by the knight with their horses in order to receive the Caliph; it connected the Army House with the Great Oriental Porch.
        At the beginning it was built as a sequence of fifteen archs, fourteen three centered archs and the central one horseshoe, on pillars and oriented north south since the North Wall. The archsLarge Oriental Porch were made with alternance of brick and stones voussoirs. In front of this there is a big space used as Army Square, in which the knights stopped in front of the Caliph. Inside this there were also some rooms for the soldiers.
        The Porch Gallery had a terrace, from which no remains, paved with lime mortar painted to Almagro. At its center onCentral Arch of the Large Oriental Porch the axial arch, it would have a small temple, from which the caliph supervised the army and the chivalry. This is not conserved neither.
        After its building, completed by the end of the reign of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III or the beginning of Caliph al-Hakam II, the complex suffered numerous changes that gave it another asymmetry. In the northern part of the Square of Army there was a great slope with stones for connecting the north part of the Alcazar. This makes the three first archs to be closed in the gallery porch. These were divided into individual rooms that are used by the guards.
        The nowadays entrance, between the porch terrace and the terrace where it is the Rich Lounge (or Abd al-Rahman III Lounge) and the High Garden, breaks the asymmetry.

Text: Jesús Pijuán.

Traslated by Sara Moretti