MORE INFORMATION
Córdoba in green: gardens, paths, patios and labyrinths
Córdoba, between shadows and mirrors
In the streets of the Alcázar Viejo neighborhood, in Córdoba, a tense calm erupts inside their houses. In the patios, the explosion of color of the geraniums and gypsies that hang from the pots anchored on their walls mixes with the bustle of their owners, who clean leaves, move pots or whitewash walls in the final stretch for the Festival de los Patios de Córdoba, which, after breaking with the uncertainty of the pandemic, will be held from this Monday, May 3, to May 16. Fifty hundred from the entire Cordovan old town participate, but those of this suburb attached to the Almohad wall collect a good amount of their prizes.
This edition is special, not only because the contest is resumed after the forced suspension of last year by the covid, but because it coincides with its centenary.
The Fiesta de los Patios, declared an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2012, has become a tourist magnet, especially for foreign travelers.
This year, the one million visitors that were achieved in 2019 will not be reached, but the lifting of the perimeter confinement between the provinces of Andalusia, together with the decay of the state of alarm on May 9, augurs a presence of national tourists who will have to save the safety distances, comply with a restricted capacity and whose mobility will be controlled by drones and Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth
sensors
.
enlarge photo Detail of a wall in one of the courtyards in Córdoba.
getty images
The illusion of the participants in the contest remains intact, however. The owners of the 50 courtyards that compete are all year round looking after their plants, although when spring approaches they increase their zeal. “Right now we live here 24 hours a day,” acknowledges Nacho Álvarez. Until recently it shared with four families its square patio at number 14 Calle de San Basilio, worthy of several awards, including the fourth prize in the ancient architecture modality of the last edition of 2019. Its 17th century archery supported on the wall, the kitchens and the communal latrine compete in notoriety and beauty with the multicolored geraniums and gypsies, the red flower of Adam's rib or an ear of the infant, its oldest plant, which clutter the floor and walls. Now it's him and his wife, Carmen,who take care of the flowery place, with the help of their aunt Chelo.
“The patios have always been the meeting place of the neighbors and each one decorated their corner with their flowers and their pots.
In spring they opened them so that those from other corralas or neighborhoods could come to see their wonders ”, explains Miguel Ángel Roldán, president of the Association of Friends of Cordovan Patios.
"That taste to share, to celebrate, that generosity of inviting the other to your home is the essence of the Fiesta de los Patios and is what Unesco recognized", Juan José Primo Jurado, president of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage, abounds. which recalls that the centennial contest is part of a popular initiative that was welcomed by the City Council.
enlarge photo The gardener of the Palacio de Viana works in the Patio de los Gatos, from the 14th century, the oldest in Córdoba.
Chencho Martinez
Mime and perseverance
Taking care of the patios is much more than entertainment, it is a way of life. The care for details, the tiring constancy of fertilizing and spraying, the worries due to excessive heat or rain are transmitted from parents to children. Nacho inherited the passion of his mother, Isabel López, who has hers a few meters away (Duartas, 2). Isabel “plays Parcheesi”, as she says, with her flowerpots, holding some to the sun and protecting others from the threat of a storm. Its floral composition, in which geraniums are mixed with cat's claw and aromatic plants, earned it the fourth prize in modern architecture in 2019, although, as is usual in the Alcázar Viejo neighborhood, almost all the patios have been awarded in various competitions.
The contest has two categories: old architecture, where popular courtyards that have not been restored compete, and modern, which rewards those of new construction or that have been rehabilitated.
"The jury values the variety of the flowers, their condition, their conservation, the architecture of the house, the cleanliness ...", explains Roldán, who has been a judge for 10 years.
Eight awards and one honor award are awarded in each category.
If we are guided by the awards, in addition to the streets of the Alcázar Viejo, on the route we must mark the streets of the Marroquíes, Tinte, Parras or Chaparro.
Viana Palace, the most floral museum
If in May all of Córdoba becomes a museum of popular courtyards, throughout the year the Viana Palace is the museum of Cordovan courtyards. Inside this noble house in the heart of the city there are 12 patios, most of them stately, a different example of architecture and design of these spaces. The palace, however, houses the oldest Cordovan popular patio, dating from the 14th century: the Patio de los Gatos, which overlooked a neighboring corral and was incorporated into the house in the 16th century. Many of the flowers that now adorn the Cordovan patios have come out of these walls. "Many species from overseas or endemic from other countries arrived here, such as the centaurea, and which the gardeners later made known to the rest of the city," explains Leopoldo Izquierdo,director of this palace who is an active collaborator of the Fiesta de los Patios.
Although the patios are preserved 365 days a year, they always innovate when the contest arrives. Teo, the gardener of San Basilio, 44, where the Association of Friends of the Patios has its headquarters, has abandoned his “rococo style” with which he recharged with floral mixtures from the galleries for a sobriety that allows his walls to show off. "I wanted to do something simpler for the centenary," he explains. A little further up, at number 8, a small Roman-inspired patio keeps the lemon tree on its trellis hugging its wall, but has replaced a space where a vine used to plant its leaves with archaeological remains and a source of tesserae. "Our plants are autochthonous, they do not come from a greenhouse, and that is valued," explains one of those responsible. In 2019 they obtained the seventh prize in modern architecture.
Araceli López cannot conceive of a patio without flowers and she has transmitted her passion to her daughters, Merichel and Araceli Valle, who organize guided tours through several of the Alcázar Viejo patios (patiosdesanbasilio.com). They take care of that of San Basilio, 40, and that of his house (Martín de Roa, 2), which is part of the wall. "We started to compete in 2005, then only three courtyards in the neighborhood participated and we did not want the tradition to be lost," he says. A tradition that anchors its origin in the
Roman
domus
, which the Arabs sophisticated by impregnating the courtyards with the color of the flowers climbing the walls and the murmur of the fountains, and which the people of Cordoba have continued to cultivate until it became a world heritage site.
Find inspiration for your next trips on our Facebook and Twitter and Instragram or subscribe here to the El Viajero Newsletter.
