May, this special month, flowers are growing; fields are green, sunny weather, spring in its maximum. May is this month where everyone enjoys the nature, where the smell of the flowers can be appreciated. May is special. But May has a place where it likes to grow, its capital, its life. We are talking about Cordoba.
Córdoba is a Spanish city, the capital of my region. It was created by the Romans during the II century A.C. being the capital of the region during the Roman Republic. In this period two of the most important personalities during the Roman Age were born in Córdoba: Claudio Marcelo and Seneca. But it is in Muslims Empire when Córdoba turned on one of the most important cities in the Middle Age´s world. There was established the capital of the Caliphate from 756 to 1031 A.C. being the most inhabited city in Europe and the centre of world education and culture.
Nowadays, Córdoba is the city with more declared World Heritage Sites in the world: The Mosque-Cathedral, the Historical Centre, The festival of Patios and recently Medina Azahara.
Before May and all the festival that are celebrated in Córdoba during it, we can’t forget the festival that open them. It is called “Cata” of wines. “Cata” means taste and in this festival, during five days there are gathered more than 30 wine cellars and restaurants and you can try different wines and typical food from the region. This is usually celebrated during the last week of April and started to be celebrated in 1984. We could say that this is the “Oktoberfest” of wine and it is really interesting if you want to know more about the wine tradition of the region.
Coming back to May, Córdoba is the capital of this month. During it there is celebrated important festival that makes that city special. The first of May is celebrated the The Battle of the Flowers. It is a parade where the people say welcome to the month that coming and dressed with regional suits like flamenco. People inside the float throw flowers to the pedestrians. This festival is considerate the opening of May and all the festivals. First data of the celebration of this parade are from 1940.
At the beginning of May is celebrated the first important Festival: The May Crosses. In this Festival, the main streets, squares and places of the city put a cross made by flowers with flowerpots and decoration typical from the region. In mostly all this crosses, people create bars where you can drink and taste typical food. The origin of this festival comes from the beginning of XX century with a religious character, celebrating the triumph of Christ after dead who saved the humanity. Firstly this festival was related to the Patios festival and people usually used to do the crosses inside homes.
After that, during the second and the third of May, there is celebrated the Festival and Contest of The Patios. There is a festival made by the city council where people of all around Córdoba have the possibility to open their homes where they have decorated the courtyard with flowers, flowerpots and they show to the tourist the typical architecture of the city. This festival was declared in 1980 as National touristic interest festival and in 2012 World Heritage Site. This festival was started in 1921 but was after the Civil War when this festival started to be more important in Spain. During the last 10 years, Córdoba receive more than 1 million of tourist to visit the Festival.
This frenetic month finish with the Funfair and it is celebrated in the last week of May. As almost all the festival in Spain it festival has a religion connection even there is not celebrated any religious event. This festival is in the honor of The Virgin of the Health and it has its origin in 1284 when they started to celebrate cattle fairs. Nowadays, we can say that is one of the most important celebrations for young people in the south of Spain and it is one of the collections of folklore and culture in the South too. People usually are dressed with the gipsy and flamenco dress and there is some places where people can dance and enjoy. The entrance of the Fair is inspired by the Mosque.
Closing up this route from the month of May in Córdoba, I just would like to invite all the people that are reading this blog to come, discover, enjoy and live one of the most beautiful places in Spain. Sometimes we are used to know about big cities like Barcelona or Madrid but there is a lot of history, traditions and cultures that you can discover in my country. From my point of view is something special difficult to express by words.