Court of the Cats in Viana Palace, Cordoba (Spain)
Court of the Cats
Through a little and austere zone, with a simple coffered ceiling and a central 
wall that interrupts a well with muslim aspect, we enter to the known Court of Cats. With a rectangular lan, quite narrow, it is the last of the patios and it has a ring of vegetation that surrounds the palace.
It was destinied to the staff, and a few years ago it was not possible to visit it, but the owners have restored it, decorated it
and transfomed into one of the twelve visitable patios (courts). It was made an attempt of imitation of the traditional cordovan patio. Then it was one conventional patio of neighbours, with its white walls, full of pots with geraniums (Pelargonium Zonale) and gitanillas (Pelargonium Peltatum), or the pile for washing 
the clothes that we can see on one corner.
These communal patios (courts) constitute a place for meeting among neighbours, and where they shared kitchen, bathrooms and source, and where the children played too, representing a style of life with open doors, different from the present, where the division and the hermetism seem to be common denominator.
The patio is named like this because a great presence of cats that there were around the same, the kitchen of the high floor was next to the patio and without any doubt the cats were attracted by the smell of food.
Species that live in the patio
|
Argyranthemum Frutescens (Pericón) |
Laurus Nobilis (Laurel) |
Text: J.A.S.C.
Traslated by Sara Moretti
Art, Culture and Tourism in Cordoba