On 1st July 2018, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, at a meeting held in the city of Manama in Bahrain to mark its 42nd session, unanimously approved the candidacy submitted by Spain to enrol THE CALIPHATE CITY OF MEDINA AZAHARA on the List of the World Heritage Sites, under categories (iii) and (iv).
The Committee also made several recommendations to be taken into account, for instance that the name of the site should be changed to THE CALIPHATE CITY OF MEDINA AZAHARA, in order to maintain its historical name.
The ruins which now comprise the archaeological site of Medina Azahara were built from scratch by the western Umayyad dynasty in the mid-tenth century as the seat of the Caliphate of Cordoba. However, the palace-city was razed to the ground soon after and fell into obscurity until its rediscovery at the beginning of the 20th century. What is so special about the site is that it conserves a complete urban complex, including infrastructures, buildings, decoration and objects of daily use, which gives us a unique, in-depth insight into the material culture of a civilization which disappeared at the zenith of its splendour. What is more, it is the only surviving example of a city of these characteristics in Europe and, of this particular historical period, in the whole of Islamic culture. The fact that the city lay buried for almost a millennium also means that it has been remained relatively untouched.
This new nomination can be added to the others already acquired by the city of Cordoba on the prestigious UNESCO list:
Firstly, there is THE MOSQUE DE CÓRDOBA (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/313), which was declared a World Heritage site on 2nd November 1984 in Buenos Aires. The declaration was extended (Declaration Nº 313-bis) to include the HISTORIC CENTRE DE CÓRDOBA ten years later, on 17th December 1994, in Phuket (Thailand) in categories (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).
In addition, THE FESTIVAL OF THE COURTYARDS (PATIOS) OF CÓRDOBA was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 6th December 2012 (https://ich.unesco.org/es/RL/la-fiesta-de-los-patios-de-cordoba-00846?RL=00846)
Córdoba has also achieved recognition in two other Intangible Cultural Heritage awards, namely for FLAMENCO (https://ich.unesco.org/es/RL/el-flamenco-00363) and THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET (https://ich.unesco.org/es/RL/la-dieta-mediterranea-00884), which were registered in 2010.
