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The Christian conquest of al-Andalus not only transformed the political map, but also the religious and architectural landscape. Andalusi mosques – places of worship, but also of identity and power – were converted into churches after the Christian conquest, in some cases in a process that was as immediate as it was symbolic, as the consecration of the main Muslim temples as seats of Christian worship was also a tool of power, part of a strategy of domination.
The emblematic cases of this process are those of Cordoba and Seville, where the main mosques were transformed into cathedrals, either respecting their original structure or replacing it with new constructions, but it was a very extensive process in which altars, chapels, and bell towers were inserted into multiple Islamic buildings, whose identity was diluted.
In this context, Mudéjar art emerges as a singular expression: a Christian functional reformulation built with Islamic techniques, materials, and language. Far from being mere decoration, Mudéjar art reflects the coexistence—and tension—between cultures, turning these buildings into living testaments to a shared history. Many Christian churches in Seville preserve horseshoe arches, calligraphic plasterwork, or minarets converted into bell towers, showing how the Islamic was absorbed, reinterpreted, or re-signified within the new Christian order, and how architecture became a tool of domination, but also of memory and even resistance.
The conference, under the title of ‘From Mosques to Churches. The Islamic Origin of Some Seville Churches’, will take place on Thursday 9th April at 7.00 p.m. Due to high demand for assistance, we are moving the location and the conference will be held at our headquarters, the Hassan II Pavilion., and will be led by Susana Calvo Capilla, Associate Professor of Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid and a doctor from the Autonomous University of Madrid; a recognised specialist in Islamic art, particularly the religious architecture of al-Andalus. Professor Calvo focused her award-winning doctoral thesis on the mosques of al-Andalus and their historical and cultural context, and is the author of The mosques of al-Andalus Ibn Tufayl Foundation, 2014.
📅 Thursday, 9 April
7:00 PM
📍 Headquarters of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation
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