Photograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro Casado


Name of Monument:

Mosque of Cristo de la Luz

Also known as:

Bab al-Mardum mosque

Location:

Calle Cristo de la Luz, s/n, Toledo, Spain

Date of Monument:

Hegira (month of) Muharram 390 / AD December 999–January 1000

Period / Dynasty:

Umayyad of al-Andalus, Caliphate period

Patron(s):

Ahmad ibn Hadidi.

History:

The mosque was converted into a church in 1085, the year of the Christian conquest of Toledo. In 1182, at the request of King Alfonso VIII, the Archbishop of Toledo gave it over to the Order of the Hospital of the Holy Cross. At this time the church was extended to include a Mudéjar transept and apse.

Description:

Located in the medieval quarter of San Nicolás, a short walk from Bab al-Mardum ('the walled gateway'), it was built by Ahmad ibn Hadidi, a member of a prestigious Toledo family whose name is included in the foundation inscription on the top of the main façade. The bricks in this façade are arranged in an ingenious and, for the West, uncommon fashion that relates to Mesopotamian and Persian forms. A number of studies have also linked the building to the first Córdoban mosque, of which it is a smaller version.
The layout is practically square (7.74 m x 8.60 m) and the internal space is divided by four columns into three parallel naves crossed by a further three to create nine square compartments, each covered with a vault. The very elegant central vault, which is higher than the rest (9.30 m), is particularly striking, and it is nearly five times as high as each section is wide. The vaults are more or less directly inspired by al-Hakam II's extension of the Great Mosque of Córdoba. The mihrab (prayer niche), which according to Gómez-Moreno (see Bibliography) had a square base and was slightly larger than the other sections, is located on the southeast, or qibla wall, side. Brick was the preferred building material used, with lime mortar, masonry courses for facings and gypsum plaster. Salvaged ashlar was used in the lower part of the southeast and southwest façades, and can still be seen in the qibla wall.
The interior of this peculiar and complex building is quite open as it is supported on salvaged columns with no bases (three of the capitals are Visigothic). It is split into three four-section spaces, with the exception of the central one. The low arches are horseshoe-shaped, using Caliphate proportions, toothed and with soffits slightly concaved towards their haunches, something which can also be seen in the Great Mosque of Córdoba. Two cavetto cornices circumscribe the second space, with each section pierced by a horseshoe or tri-lobed arch (bi-lobed in the central section) with the respective columns, one of which still bears a Corinthian capital. Another example of the imagination employed is the vaulting, which demonstrates an abundance of decorative rather than structural ingenuity, with a different solution used for each vault within a system of crossed vaulted horseshoe arches, with the exception of the tri-lobed arches of the vault in front of the mihrab. The central vault rests on squinches and wall arches finished with cornices, mimicking the composition of the adjacent arches of the Great Mosque of Córdoba, but in a slanting position.

View Short Description

This small local mosque, unique in al-Andalus, was built at the expense of a powerful Toledan whose name figures on the main façade. Its cubic shape, which is divided inside into nine equal squares, is taken from a mosque design that originated in the Muslim East. The arches and small ribbed vaults, however, are taken from the Great Mosque of Córdoba. It was later converted into a Christian church with a Mudéjar apse.

How Monument was dated:

From the inscription on the main façade.

Selected bibliography:

Amador de los Ríos, R., Monumentos Arquitectónicos de España: Toledo, Madrid, 1905, pp.73–97.
Delgado Valero, C., Toledo Islámico: Ciudad, Arte e Historia, Toledo, 1987, pp.283–303.
Ewert, C., “Die Moschee am Bab al-Mardum in Toledo: Eine 'Kopie' der Ehemaligen Moschee von Córdoba”, Madridrer Mitteilungen, 18, 1977, pp.287–354.
Gómez Moreno, M., El Arte árabe Español Hasta los Almohades: Arte Mozárabe,Ars Hispaniae, Vol. III, Madrid, 1951, pp.201–7.
King, G., “The Mosque Bab Mardum in Toledo and the Influences Acting Upon It”, Art and Archaeology Research Papers, 2, 1972, pp.29–40.
Mudéjar Art: Islamic Aesthetics in Christian Art, pp.199–200.

Citation of this web page:

Ángela Franco "Mosque of Cristo de la Luz" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;es;Mon01;3;en

Prepared by: Ángela FrancoÁngela Franco

Ángela Franco es Jefa del Departamento de Antigüedades Medievales en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional.
Obtuvo el Grado de Doctor por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid con la tesis Escultura gótica en León y provincia, premiada y publicada parcialmente (Madrid, 1976; reed. León, 1998); y la Diplomatura en Paleografía y Archivística por la Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, con la tesis L'Archivio paleografico italiano: indici dei manoscritti, publicada en castellano (Madrid, 1985). Becas de investigación: beca posdoctoral del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma (1974-75); beca posdoctoral del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma (1975-77); beca de la Fundación Juan March de Madrid (1978).
Tiene en su haber 202 publicaciones, fundamentalmente sobre arte medieval cristiano, en especial la iconografía: Crucifijo gótico doloroso, Doble Credo, Danzas de la Muerte, temática bíblica en relación con la liturgia (el Génesis y el Éxodo en relación con la vigilia Pascual) o con el teatro (Secundum legem debet mori, sobre el “pozo de Moisés” de la cartuja de Dijon). Es autora de cuatro catálogos monográficos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, entre ellos el de Dedales islámicos (Madrid, 1993), y de publicaciones sobre escultura gótica y pintura en la catedral de León y sobre escultura gótica en Ávila, así como de numerosas fichas para catálogos de exposiciones.
Ha participado en innumerables congresos nacionales e internacionales, presentando ponencias y mesas redondas, y ha dirigido cursos y ciclos de conferencias. Es Secretaria de Publicaciones en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional desde 1989.

Copyedited by: Rosalía AllerRosalía Aller

Rosalía Aller Maisonnave, licenciada en Letras (Universidad Católica del Uruguay), y en Filología Hispánica y magíster en Gestión Cultural de Música, Teatro y Danza (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), ha obtenido becas de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia de Madrid, así como el Diplôme de Langue Française (Alliance Française), el Certificate of Proficiency in English (University of Cambridge) y el Certificado Superior en inglés y francés (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Madrid). Profesora de Estética de la Poesía y Teoría Literaria en la Universidad Católica del Uruguay, actualmente es docente de Lengua Castellana y Literatura en institutos de Enseñanza Secundaria y formación del profesorado en Madrid. Desde 1983, ha realizado traducción y edición de textos en Automated Training Systems, Applied Learning International, Videobanco Formación y El Derecho Editores. Integra el equipo de Museo Sin Fronteras desde 1999 y ha colaborado en la revisión de los catálogos de “El Arte Islámico en el Mediterráneo”. Así mismo, ha realizado publicaciones sobre temas literarios y didácticos, ha dictado conferencias y ha participado en recitales poéticos.

Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: SP 03

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