A fire broke that out on Friday evening at the famed mosque-turned-cathedral, ‘La Mezquita’ in Córdoba (Andalusia) – but the landmark was spared thanks to a swift response from firefighters, the city’s mayor confirmed.
Videos widely circulated on social media showed flames and smoke rising from inside the UNESCO-listed monument, which draws around two million visitors each year.
‘The monument is saved. There will be no spread, it will not be a catastrophe, let’s put it that way,’ Mayor José María Bellido said.
Later, he announced that the blaze, earlier reported by the fire brigade as being under control, had been fully extinguished.
‘Luckily, the rapid and magnificent intervention of the Córdoba firefighters averted a catastrophe. The fire is now out, and tonight firefighters and local police teams will remain on site to avoid any risk,’ the mayor wrote on X.
The fire started at around 9pm, sparking alarm for the early medieval treasure and drawing comparisons to the devastating 2019 blaze at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.
According to Spanish media, the source of the flames was a mechanical sweeping machine that caught fire inside the complex.
Regarded as a masterpiece of Islamic architecture, the site was originally constructed as a mosque – on the remains of an earlier church – between the 8th and 10th centuries under Abd ar-Rahman, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba.
Following the Christian reconquest of the city in the 13th century by King Ferdinand III of Castile, it was converted into a cathedral, with significant architectural modifications made over the centuries that followed.
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Declaración de José María Bellido, Alcalde de Córdoba acerca del incendio.#mezquitacatedral @CordobaESP @patrimoniocor @CordobaCultura @GrupoCPHE @TurismoAND @UNESCO @diocesiscordoba @odisur @prensaCEE @agrupacioncor @jjjgueto pic.twitter.com/X8cIcT7vec
— Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba (@mezq_catedral) August 8, 2025
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