Córdoba

Córdoba, city, Argentina

Córdoba (kôr`dōvä), city (1991 pop. 1,197,926), capital of Córdoba prov., central Argentina, on the Río Primero. It is the second largest city in Argentina, a cultural and commercial center, and a transportation hub. Near the city on the Primero is one of the first dams in South America; it provides hydroelectric power to Córdoba. Irrigation has transformed the surrounding countryside, formerly devoted to cattle ranches, into orchards, grain fields, and vineyards. Córdoba exports wheat, cattle, lumber, and minerals. An automobile assembly plant is there, as are a number of small industries. The city is also a popular tourist and health resort.

Córdoba was founded in 1573 and prospered during colonial times as a link on the commercial route between Buenos Aires and Chile. The advent of the railroad in the 19th cent. increased prosperity. Many buildings in the city date from colonial times. Most notable are the cathedral and the former city hall. The university (founded 1613) made Córdoba an early intellectual center of South America. The city also has an observatory and several museums.

---

Córdoba, city, Mexico

Córdoba (kôr`dōvä), city (1990 pop. 130,695), Veracruz state, E central Mexico. It is the commercial and processing center of a fertile coffee, sugarcane, and tropical fruit region. Sugar milling is the chief industry. The city is also a popular tourist spot. Córdoba was founded in 1617. The Spanish viceroy O'Donojú and the Mexican revolutionary Agustín de Iturbide signed a treaty there in 1821 that established Mexico's independence. The city suffered extensive damage in 1973 from an earthquake.

---

Córdoba, city, Spain

Córdoba or Cordova (both: kôr`dōvä), city (1990 pop. 307,275), capital of Córdoba prov., S Spain, in Andalusia, on the Guadalquivir River. Modern industries in the city include brewing, distilling, textile manufacturing, metallurgy, and tourism. Córdoba flourished under the Romans, then passed to the Visigoths (572) and the Moors (711). Under the Umayyad dynasty it became the seat (756–1031) of an independent emirate, later called caliphate, which included most of Muslim Spain. The city was then one of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe, renowned as a center of Muslim and Jewish culture and admired for its architectural glories—notably, the great mosque, begun in the 8th cent., which is one of the finest of all Muslim monuments—and for its gold, silver, silk, and leather work. The city reached its zenith under Abd ar-Rahman III, who also founded the city of Medina Azahara, whose ruins E of Córdoba were discovered in 1911. Córdoba declined after the fall of the Umayyads and became subject to Seville in 1078. Ferdinand III of Castile conquered it in 1236; in 1238 the great mosque became a cathedral. Córdoba never recovered its former splendor, but remained famous for its work in gold, silver, and leather. It was sacked by the French in 1808 and sided with Franco early (1936) in the civil war. The Senecas, Lucan, Averroës, and Maimonides were born in Córdoba. There is a university in the city.

---

Córdoba

City (pop., 1999 est.: 1,275,585), the second largest in Argentina. It lies on the Primero River along the foothills of the Sierra de Córdoba. Founded in 1573, its location between the coast and the interior settlements favoured its early development. In 1599 Jesuits settled in the city and founded the country's first university (1613). Córdoba's growth was stimulated by the completion of rail connections with the east in 1869 and the San Roque Dam in 1866, which provides irrigation water for orchards and grain fields and hydroelectric power for the city's many factories.

---

Córdoba

 or Cordova ancient Corduba

City (pop., 2001: 308,072), capital of Córdoba province, southern Spain. On the banks of the Guadalquivir River, it probably had Carthaginian origins. Occupied by the Romans in 152 BC, it became, under Augustus, the capital of the Roman province of Baetica. It declined under the Visigoths (6th–8th centuries AD), and it was captured by the Muslims in 711. Abd al-Rahman I, of the Umayyad family, made it his capital in 756 and founded the Great Mosque of Córdoba, which still stands. By the 10th century it was the largest city in Europe, filled with palaces and mosques. It fell to the Castilian king Ferdinand III in 1236 and became part of Christian Spain. Modern Córdoba's streets and buildings evoke its Moorish heritage.