Gardens of Cordova and Jaen

The diversity of types and styles of gardens in Córdoba and its province is the most remarkable in Andalusia.

The oldest walled garden in Europe is found in the town, the orange grove beside the Mosque, dating from the 8th century.

Gardens from the time of the caliphs can be found in the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, with the characteristic terraced pools, as well as nearby in Medina-Azahara. The Palace of the Prince of Viana has a garden and 11 courtyards covering the Renaissance and Baroque periods, restored by the owners at the beginning of this century. The oldest part is the Patio de la Madama, which has a small temple in the centre formed by arched and clipped cypresses round the figure of a woman.

Quite near the town, one may visit the Alameda del Obispo (the Bishop´s Avenue), which includes a Baroque maze, restored during this century. There are some quite good examples of public gardens from the 19th century, such as the garden of La Victoria and of La Agricultura, the latter with a large quantity of plane trees and pines.

During this century, landscaped Cruz Conde Park was opened, as well as the gardens of Colón, the Faculty of Veterinarians, the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and, more recently, the Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The Zoo includes three greenhouses, housing plants found in the peninsula, an area devoted to plants useful to man from several parts of the world (as a complement to the ethnographical museum housed in the interior) and a curious garden for the blind containing aromatic plants with labels in Braille.

In the old part of town, and especially in the Jewish quarter, there are some wonderfully attractive patios. The neighbourhood patios have a profusion of flowers in pots, and the ones belonging to private houses have a wide variety of different styles. Of these, one may visit the patios of the Bullfighting Museum, the Archaeological Museum and the Plaza San Andrés.

At Fernán Nuñez, the ducal palace has an attractive Baroque terraced garden that maintains the Hispano-Arabic taste for a garden-orchard. On the road to Posadas, there is the garden of Moratalla, designed largely by Forestier. Entrance is gained through a large iron grille that opens onto a wide central avenue in the style of a French chateau. There are some characteristic fountains and enormous plane trees over a large part of the garden, and the curious garden tables and benches are made of brick and glazed tiles.

To the south, in Cabra, there is the Alcantara Romero Park, a good example of a 19th century public garden, as well as La Fuente del Río Park around the source of the Cabra River. Not far away, in Priego, there is La Fuente del Rey, a Baroque monument with a garden laid out in the 19th century. Finally, Jaén has two parks, La Victoria and Alameda de Calvo Sotelo.