Casa Árabe’s exhibition “From Qurtuba to Córdoba,” organized by the Embassy of Spain in Mauritania, will be presented at the National Museum of Mauritania in Nouakchott from December 11-31 and will then travel to the city of Chinguetti from January 1-5, 2015, as part of the “Festival of Ancient Cities''.

In addition, on December 11 at 6:00 p.m., a conference will be held with the title “Qurtuba, à la lumière de l’archéologie.” It will be given by Professor Rafael López Guzmán and presented by the General Director of Casa Árabe, Eduardo López Busquets, and the Ambassador of Spain in Mauritania.  After this, an opening ceremony will be held for the exhibition, which is made up of a selection of fifty works created for the first “From Qurtuba to Córdoba” Photography Competition, held with the goal of rediscovering and placing renewed value on the local heritage related with the period of Al-Andalus, and organized into seven categories: The Aljama Mosque and environs; Madinat al-Zahra; City Walls, City Gates, fortified towers and urban fabric; Minarets; Arab Baths; the Mudejar style; and freely chosen topics. It is a unique opportunity for the public to be able to observe the mark left behind by the Arab and Islamic legacy in the city of Cordoba.

Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba was the first space to host the exhibition in 2012. Later, thanks to the wonderful collaboration which has occurred in recent years with the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), Spain’s network of embassies and the Cervantes Institute, the viewpoint of Spanish authors in these photographs is being shared by the public in Riyadh and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia); Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Tangier and Tetouan (Morocco); Doha (Qatar); Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus (Palestine); Amman (Jordan); Nouakchott and Chinguetti (Mauritania); Algiers (Algeria); Cairo (Egypt); Tunis (Tunisia); etc. 

For Casa Árabe, it has been of enormous satisfaction to convey to the Arab world the feeling of pride with which our fellow citizens value our heritage from Al-Andalus and are keeping it alive in twenty-first century Cordoba.