In 2017, the Cabildo of Córdoba dismantled one of the four lattices of the Mosque-Cathedral so that the Holy Week processions could fit through its arches. Despite its extreme protection as World Heritage and Exceptional Universal Value, the Church altered the monument with the approval of the Andalusian Government and dismantled the exceptional noble wood lattice that the architect Rafael de la Hoz made in 1972. Three sentences, have not achieved the restoration of the lattice despite the fact that the court declared the authorization of the Board null and void. Now the citizen platform Mosque-Cathedral Patrimony of All has appealed to the Constitutional Court to enforce the sentence and revert the monument to its original state prior to 2017 on the façade that faces the Patio de los Naranjos.
“After registering the monument, the previous bishop of Córdoba became empowered. One of his actions was to try to move the official Holy Week race to the Mosque-Cathedral. The latticework was an obstacle to this. Since it was protected, the permission of the Board was needed. The sectors in favor of this change pressured the Board and, once permitted, the municipal management with the argument that it would prevaricate if it was not authorized,” recalls Antonio Manuel Rodríguez, member of the platform and professor. of Civil Law from the University of Córdoba.
The son of the author of the lattice, Rafael De la Hoz Castanys, also an architect, including the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Andalusian Executive had violated two heritage laws. However, almost five years later, the last sentence has not been executed and that is why the citizen platform has appealed to the court of guarantees, to force Judge Antonio Salmoral, head of Administrative Litigation 4 of Córdoba, to order the Cabildo to dust off the lattice, if it has not been destroyed.
The request for protection, presented a week ago before the Constitutional Court, highlights the violation of the right to effective judicial protection as the authorization of the Andalusian Junta to have the lattice dismantled, but not recover it, and therefore not comply with the sentence, has been annulled. “It is a manifest, palpable and evident reality: neither then, nor today, the unduly removed lattice has been replaced, so that the annulled act maintains visible and persistent effects on the monument, which is located, mutilated in the eyes of all humanity, which is their titular“, highlights the writing. The latticework was already part of the historical complex when it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984, as well as its extension to a World Heritage Site in 1994 and Outstanding Universal Value in 2014.
Two years ago, Judge Salmoral opened an incident for the execution of the sentence and after admitting the citizen platform as a person, he expelled her from the procedure despite her work protecting historical heritage. In 2024, the Andalusian Superior Court of Justice (TSJA) alleged that the original ruling did not expressly include that the latticework should be restored and considered that the judicial route was exhausted because the Board had already annulled its administrative authorization. Last November the Supreme Court rejected an appeal for cassation, hence the recent appeal to the court of guarantees.
“Perpetuating the refusal that the initial sentence be carried out in an effective, material and real manner seems to be a clearly question of constitutional scope and significance, since it places our country as a place where it is possible to damage, alter or modify its most precious cultural assets, without the courts having the capacity to genuinely respond (…) It would be inconceivable that no physical or legal person would remove one of the caryatids from the Parthenon and that a sentence would be limited to annulling the authorizing license for such. nonsense without requesting the replacement of the exceptional statue that was improperly removed,” the letter summarizes. And to justify its presence as a recurring party in the process, the platform recalls article 8 of the Spanish Historical Heritage Law of 1985, which recognizes “public action aimed at expanding citizen legitimacy in defense of historical heritage”: “What is of all It affects everyone and everyone should be interested, so everyone should be able to defend it before Justice.”
Pablo Rabasco, patron of the Contemporary Architecture Foundation and professor of Art History at the University of Córdoba, highlights the artistic value stolen from the Mosque-Cathedral: “Rafael de la Hoz returned in 1972 to the original idea of the founding mosque of opening and relationship with the patio, before the arcades were closed with Christianity in the 14th century. It is very interesting because it divided spaces, filtered the light, allowed ventilation, but it also had a religious and social component of not allowing direct vision.”
The indignation among the members of the citizen platform is evident: “A very serious cultural attack has been committed against a monument protected by UNESCO and the perpetrators are going to go unpunished. The doors are closed to citizens to defend their own historical heritage and they are invited to ignore the heritage. Meanwhile, underlying this battle is the Church’s obsession with making visible that the monument is a cathedral and not a mosque,” censures Miguel Santiago, spokesman for the platform. This platform places the former Andalusian Minister of Culture Rosa Aguilar – former mayor of Córdoba – as the main person responsible for the Andalusian Government ignoring heritage laws to lay out the red carpet for the Cabildo and for it to remove the latticework.
Rafael de la Hoz Castanys won the legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court, but he did not request the execution of the sentence. Because? “It was a tactical move, because I believed that my position was stronger with the threat of requesting it. I was afraid that the judge would say that he had annulled the file and that it was not my responsibility, but that of the Board. I was prudent, I offered dialogue to the Cabildo, but we never reached an agreement,” he comments by phone with a bitter taste. “The sentences against the heritage cannot be executed and it seems that everyone feels comfortable, including the Academies of Fine Arts,” he censures.
This criticism is shared by the professor of Administrative Law at the Complutense University, Julio González, who charges against the judges: “The administrative litigation is not prepared to protect the historical heritage, it does not take into account the nature of the assets with great risk of damage and a difficult or impossible recovery. Instead of waiting for the end of the lawsuit, it should adopt precautionary measures to suspend the execution of the project and put the assets in a bubble.” The legal expert gives as another example of a failure by justice and considers that it is “very soft” and lacks precautionary measures to protect historical and artistic heritage. The expert considers that in the case of the Mosque-Cathedral, given its monumental relevance as an emblematic building, it should be the responsibility of the State. “In this case, the excessive weight of the Church was seen and President Susana Díaz was not especially active in protecting the property. When you separate the institutions, you give it a mantle of objectivity and less popular pressure from nearby interest groups.”
The Córdoba Town Council plans to fix the north wall where the lattice was, but not its recovery. “It is an issue that has little coverage,” responds a spokesperson for the ecclesiastical institution. A year ago, the Andalusian Government (PP) launched a million-dollar tourism campaign that invited people to have a “fall in love” with the region, and included images of the latticework of the Mosque-Cathedral to encourage it. This newspaper has asked the Ministry of Culture and Sports if it plans to restore the wooden lattice, but has not received a response. Months after said campaign, the Rafael de la Hoz foundation was born in Córdoba, but its latticework remains unrestored.
