Cordoba: restoration work on the mosque-cathedral will start in mid-October

The Andalusian culture and sport advisor, Patricia Del Pozo, announced in Barcelona during the UNESCO World Forum Mondiacult 2025that the restoration project of the Cordoba mosque-cathedral will be approved in mid-October, immediately paving the way for work. The building, listed as World Heritage, had been damaged by a fire on August 8. The interventions, provided for in two phases, will first consist of rebuilding the roofs, before restoring the interior chapels and their movable property. Emergency operations, including dismantling affected wood structures and the provisional protection of weakened areas, are already completed. The end of the work is expected for next year.

Patricia Del Pozo stressed that the consequences left by smoke and flames should be made “reversible” in a few months, thanks to the cooperation of the various institutions mobilized. She also recalled that the speed and efficiency of the intervention of firefighters had made it possible to limit the extent of the damage. The counselor finally insisted on the importance of this restoration, not only to preserve a major monument of the World Heritage, but also to restore the Mosque-Cathedral all its brilliance, symbol of the historical and cultural identity of Cordoba.

Beyond the heritage emergency, this episode reveals the fragility of historic monuments in the face of disasters, but also their resilience capacity thanks to coordinated management. The restoration of the Mosque-Cathedral is thus part of a broader reflection on the protection of cultural goods in the context of the crisis, and on the role of these symbols in the transmission of collective memory.