Beyond the Mezquita's arches, Córdoba keeps a working art city: the ruined caliphal capital at Medina Azahara, a museum devoted to one painter's smouldering portraits, Baroque convent-galleries and Judería silver ateliers where filigree is still cut by hand.
UNESCO caliphal palace-city founded 936 CE by Abd al-Rahman III, sacked in 1010. Nieto Sobejano's award-winning underground museum opens Tue-Sat 09:00-21:00, Sun until 15:00. Free for EU citizens, €1.50 otherwise; shuttle bus €3 return from the visitor centre.
The painter's own house on Plaza del Potro holds Naranjas y Limones, La Chiquita Piconera and Cante Hondo — sultry Andalusian portraits that made him Córdoba's cult artist. Open Tue-Sun; €4.50, free with the municipal museums combined ticket.
Housed in the 15th-century Hospital de la Caridad across the courtyard from Romero de Torres. Valdés Leal, Zurbarán, Murillo and Córdoba's own Antonio del Castillo, plus a strong 19th-century Andalusian landscape room. €1.50, free for EU passports.
Twelve courtyards and a Renaissance noble house in Santa Marina, with 16th-century Cordoban embossed leather (guadamecí), Flemish tapestries and a 7,000-volume library. Patios €6, patios plus house €12; closed Mondays and August afternoons.
Built over a preserved Roman theatre — the largest in Hispania — visible through the basement floor. Iberian lion sculptures, the bronze Deer of Medina Azahara and caliphal capitals fill six galleries in the Renaissance Palacio de los Páez. €1.50.
The city's 1873 opera house on Avenida del Gran Capitán, home to the Orquesta de Córdoba and main stage of the Festival de la Guitarra each July. The box office opens 11:00-14:00 and 18:00-21:00 for same-week seats from around €15.
A free municipal flamenco museum in a 14th-century inn Cervantes mentions in Don Quixote. Touchscreen archives of cante styles, guitars owned by Vicente Amigo, and recordings of Cordoban singer Fosforito. Tue-Sun, closes 15:00 in high summer.
Córdoba's longest-running tablao in a 16th-century patio facing the Mezquita's west wall, seating around 120 for nightly cante, toque and baile at 20:30 with a second show in summer. Tickets roughly €25 including one drink.
A craft souk in a 16th-century Mudéjar courtyard on Calle Judíos where silversmiths cut Cordoban filigree, potters throw and leather workers emboss guadamecí in open workshops. Entry free; pieces from €20. Mornings are when the ateliers actually run.
The 10th-century caliphal bathhouse of Córdoba's Umayyad palace, with horseshoe-arched cold, warm and hot rooms and star-shaped skylights cut into the vaults. Entry €3, free Sunday afternoons; part of the municipal monuments ticket.
Spain's public institute for Arab and Muslim-world relations occupies the Casa Mudéjar, staging contemporary art shows, Arabic film cycles and oud concerts in a 14th-century patio. Exhibitions free; check the programme board for evening events.
The working-class quarter that wins most prizes in the May Festival de los Patios, a UNESCO Intangible Heritage practice. Several houses on Calle San Basilio and Martín de Roa open year-round for €2 per patio, tended by the families themselves.