MEZQUITA DEL CRISTO DE LA LUZ

Previous notes
- Although it is the most important monument of the Islamic Art preserved in Toledo, we include this mosque in our study of Spanish Pre Romanesque Art due to the existing relation between its structure and the one of an important ensemble of Christian monuments of that time.
- This mosque was built during the 10th century and turned into a Christian church after the taking of Toledo by Alphonse the 6th in 1085
- Our gratitude to Arturo Ruiz Taboada for his contribution with the document: “The Archeological Ensemble of Cristo de la Luz” and for his patience and dedication, as well to the rest of the restoration team of Cristo de la Luz, during an unexpected visit in Summer 2008.
Historic environment


Description
The discovery of a Roman road on the northern esplanade of Cristo de la Luz, of six metres wide and under which a sewer appeared. The road upon which a part of the mosque was built is one of the most important we know in Spain. It was formed by large granite slabs and it ran from northto south. The urban structure of the area was modified during the Arab domination, burying the Roman road under a set of new buildings, among those, our mosque with its corresponding streets.
- No remnants of any previous edification have been found under the Worship House, for what the possibility that it had been built upon a previous Visigothic church has been discarded.
- The remains that appeared under the apse of the 12th century correspond to the foundations of said apse, built in very thick stone. Neither under that apse any remains of Roman construction have been found, as it was initially thought of.
The mosque of Bab-el-Mardum was a free standing building elevated with respect to to street level, what confered great sumptuosness. An interesting detail is that it did not have a canonical orientation, since there is not any side looking towards east, what is usual in Spain for the mosques and Christian churches we know of. Due to this lack of reference with regard to a normalized orientation, it has been generally considered like a main facade the one with southwest location opposite the street of Cristo de la Luz, as it was there where the founding inscription was discovered.
Its plan has the shape of a Greek cross inscribed in a right angle of 7.90 m x 8.60 m, that gives place to nine almost square

Although, as we shall see, both, its building technique as well as its decoration in the areas that keep its original structure are clearly Islamic, we do not know of any building of this kind in Al Andalus that may be a precedent of Cristo de la Luz, with a plan sketched so differently to the Mosque of Córdoba. In Islamic Art we can only find out of Spain some buidings similar in constructions built earlier, like the mosques of Balkh (Afgnistan), Tabataba (Egypt), as well as two mosques in Tunis, Bu Fatata and the Three Doors one in Kairouan; the latter one being the one most alike and was built in the year 866 by a character from Al Andalus. However, this type of structure is quite usual in Christian art, that had spread out from Byzantium to all of Europe, long before the birth of Islam and generating a tradition of cruciform Pre-Romanesque churches of which we may consider the Basilic of Carranque, so close to Toledo, as their first precedent, and that would carry on with buildings earlier than Cristo de la Luz, as interesting as San Fructuoso de Montelios, Santa María de Lebeña or San Miguel de Tarrasa among others, and even in a Carolingian building, like Germiny-des-Prés, built by the bishop Teodulfo, of Visigothic origin.
Built in brick with lime mortar, except in some areas like the lower part preserved from the wall of the qibla, where a reutilized

The main facade is formed by three bodies. The first one of them has three doors that finish in arches of different shape.

The facade on the left side, that gave access to a courtyard that still keeps a well, which we suppose must have been used for ablutions, is also formed by three horseshoe arches inscribed in much higher semicircular arches framed by a triple drip cap. There is a beautiful set of horseshoe arches above them, decorated by the utilization of two colour voussoirs, in the style of those of the Mosque of Córdoba, within the polifoiled arches. The whole set closes with a double frieze decorated with a jagged line of bricks, upon which the modillions are placed, that support the large roof eaves. With regard to the other facades, as we have already mentioned, the one of the qibla has been heavily modified. One of them keeps a reconstructed horseshoe arch, and the fourth one, opposite the main facade, disappeared on the 12th century when the Moorish enlargement was built.
But whilst everything we see in its outside unquestionably belongs to the Islamic art, from our point of view, we should consider in its interior two levels of very different

On the second level, we find ourselves fully with the purest Caliphal art. There is another set of small round of arches upon horseshoe arches, in this case, polifoiled horseshoe arches that make the support system of the nine small independent domes that cover every space. All these domes are different, formed by framework of arches upon which leans a false masonry vault. These are also horeseshoe arches in all cases except a trifoiled arch in the compartment that was closest to the minhrab. The vaulting system based on arch rib domes that do not cross over in the centre, what will be a very meaningful element in some Mozarabic buildings, is clearly inspired in the one we find in the enlargement of al-Hakam II of the mosque of Córdoba of a few years earlier.
Conclusions
As a summary, the mosque of Cristo de la Luz is from our point of view, a clear example of the interrelation between the different artistic styles that had been developing in Spain between the 5th and 11th centuries. As we have explained above, although the influence of the Islamic culture in Spanish art has always been considered as a very important one since the 8th century, we believe that the influence on the Andalusian art on the cultural and artistic background that the Arabs found in Andalusian Spain has not been studied and valued enough. In this case we find within a wrapping -facades, decoration and cover shapes- undoubtly Islamic, a plan sketch and an architecture structure coming from Europe and widely spread in the Iberian peninsula in the centuries prior to the arrival of the Arabs, and all of that using as an integrating element of Visigothic, Mozarabic and Islamic art, a kind of horseshoe arch that corresponds to the development of the Visigothic arch on behalf of the Arabs and Mozarabics in Al Andalus and that it was also utilized both, in Christian Spain as well as in great part of the Arab architecture in the north of Africa.
Other interesting information
Access: Cristo de la Luz street, s/n, 45003, Toledo. Located at the entrance of the city on the slope of Cristo de la Luz, crossing the Puerta de Bib-Al-Mardon. GPS Coordinates: 39°51’38″N 4°1’27.3″O,
Telephone: Tourist office: 925254191 – 925254030.
Visiting hours: From Mondays through Sundays, including holidays, from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 15:30 to 18:00. Closed on December 25th and January 1st.
Prices: General: 2.30? Reduced: 1.40? Wednesdays afternoon free for European citizens.
Bibliography
SUMMA ARTIS: Tomo XII
Arts & Civilisations de l’Islam: KÖNEMAN
L’Art Preroman Hispanique – L’Art Mozarabe: ZODIAQUE.
Portals
Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz
Las mezquitas del Cristo de la Luz y de las Tres Puertas de
Qayrawan
Mezquita Bab Al Mardon
Proporciones áureas de la Mezquita del Crito de la Luz.
Vista
Panorámica del Cristo de la Luz