In keeping with our easy summer theme this week, I’d like to take you on a virtual vacation to a very special event that takes place in Cordoba, Spain, every May. It is called, officially, the Festival of the Patios de Córdoba and has a nearly century-old history. It was between 1918-1921 when the first contest promoted by the City of Córdoba was held. Although in 1927 the competition was repeated, it was not until 1933 when the contests started to become popular.
Today, this event attracts throngs of visitors from all over the world who wind through the charming, ancient cobblestone streets to inhale the delicate flower fragrances that waft through the Spanish air, to listen to the bubbling sound of water emanating from ancient stone courtyard fountains and to take pictures of the gardening artistry of the local townspeople who participate to win the coveted prize of *best patio de Cordoba* each year.
For the local townspeople, the Patios de Cordoba event is a way of life, however, all year long, as these are their private, residential courtyards where they live their everyday life, opened up just twice a year to help their city raise money for improvements.
For them, it is as natural as breathing to cultivate such beauty, it is a way of passing down to their children the visual and sensory inheritance of those who came before them, a way of being with and in nature, a place where they can meet their friends for a meal, and a treasured way of maintaining the communal spirit that makes the city of Cordoba, Spain so special.
The patio below, Sánchez de Feria, 6 from Zona Juderia, has a fabled history, and I quote from here
“This patio dates back to the XV century and was the ancestral house of Los Guzmanes, a noble family of Córdoba since the era of the Christian conquest. The building has been inhabited by famous people, amongst whom, doctor and historian Mr. Bartolomé Sánchez de Feria (XVIII century) who the street was named after and the erudite archaeologist Mr. Narciso Sentenach who lived there at the beginning of the XX Century. In 1969, the property was purchased by the Town Hall and is currently the headquarters of the Municipal Historical Archive.
The typical structure of the noble house has two gardened patios with a central fountain in each one and Córdoba-style pebbled floors. In the second patio, surrounded by nine embellished arches, a magnificent polychrome panelled ceiling and three Mudejar-style arched windows that date back to the end of the XV century really stand out. Orange and lemon trees as well as ivy geraniums and geraniums, jasmines, Bougainvillea, taxus and fig trees of several meters in height are the plants and trees that adorn this patio house.”
Doesn’t knowing this history of the home and the families who inhabited it make this garden even more beautiful? I love the texture of those old stones on the circular path surrounding the fountain.
Does it get any more genuine, any more charming, any more colorful than this?
It is now on my wish list of places to go. Is it on yours? If it is, here is a link to a charming apartment very close in to this area { I could easily stay here! } which you can rent for $115/a night that has gotten excellent reviews on Trip Advisor’s sister site, FLIPKEY, the site that named Hadley Court as one of their Top 25 Best Home Design Blogs To Follow For 2014.
And here’s a New York Times article about the Patios de Cordoba event, that will give you a more in-depth look at what it is all about and why UNESCO named it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Site in 2012.
No matter where you are right now this summer, whether that’s back and forth from your own home – taking your children to their summer activities and camps, at the beach, out in the country, or out seeing another part of the world, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little virtual vacation tour through one of the most charming spots in all of Europe – the Patios de Cordoba in Cordoba, Spain.
BUT… if you just don’t think you will be getting to Spain to see these, please click the picture below to enjoy a beautiful video, produced by http://spain-holiday.com, that showcases the Patios de Cordoba, complete with romantic, lilting Spanish guitar music and the sound of bubbling fountains in their ancient stone basins.
Your 3 minute 50 second virtual vacation is one click away!
E N J O Y
and lastly…below is a picture of the courtyard at Leslie Hendrix Wood’s family’s summer home, Hadley Court, where she spent all her summers as a young girl, learning about
Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.
for
Leslie Hendrix Wood
Decorator
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas
You’re invited to please subscribe to the Hadley Court blog, here, and to follow Hadley Court on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, here, here, here and here.