The Christianized Graet Mosque of Baeza in the 13th century, the oldest Andalusian Cathedral

Abstract

The erection of the Cathedral of Baeza upon the rests of its ancient Great Mosque in 1226 marked the beginning of the conversion policies implemented during the reigns of Fernando III and Alfonso X of Castile along the Guadalquivir River Valley, the historical heart of Al-Andalus. A series of conversions through which it was shaped a transcultural model of church that, although hardly recognizable nowadays beyond a small group of buildings, such as the cathedrals of Córdoba and Seville, represented the most common example of religious architecture in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula until the Early Modern period. Within this group of buildings, the architectural con!guration of the Cathedral of Baeza from the Christian conquest of the city represents an interesting case of study, given that it was the !rst conversion of a great mosque performed in Castile since the conquest of the city of Toledo in the time of king Alfonso VI of León (11th c.). This paper analyzes the sociopolitical and cultural context surrounding this conversion, as well as some architectural solutions tried out in Baeza that became a standard in the rest of the mosque-cathedrals of the new Castilian territories during the 13th century.