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Qantara - Mertola Mosque
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Qantara Qantara

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Mertola Mosque

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Mertola Mosque

  • Name : Mertola Mosque
  • Place : Beja-Alentejo, Portugal
  • Construction date/period : Twelfth century
  • Construction materials : Stone, brick, whitewash
  • Architectural pattern : stucco decoration
  • Dimensions : 24.2 x 16.1m

The advantageous geopolitical position of Mertola led to the building of a castle and other defensive, religious and civil structures. The town was conquered during Musa ibn Nusayr’s campaign of the second Islamic expedition against the Visigoths. Following a series of political wranglings it was finally occupied by the Almohads in 1158. Researchers such as Leopoldo Torres Balbas and Christian Ewert date the construction of the mosque at around this time. The building was transformed into a church following the city’s conquest by Sancho II of Portugal in 1238.

Viewed from the exterior, the whitewashed walls, a series of flying buttresses, conical pinnacles, and crenulations give the building an exotic yet solid aspect, which is a mixture of local and Islamic architecture. The present-day tiled sloping roof was added by the Christians. During the Muslim period the roof was composed of five separate wooden elements. The original minaret, which has not survived, is known thanks to sketches by Duarte d’Armas, to have been square in its layout. It is also believed that the structure had a small courtyard. There are three doors in the Northwest wall with horseshoe arches, which survived the restoration of the building.

The prayer room is rectangular and composed of five naves forming a T shape. The central nave is slightly wider than the others. This layout makes it comparable to other mosques such as the Madinat al-Zahra and Tinmal (Morocco). The naves are separated by columns with stone barrels, which carry narrow pointed arches leading to a complex vaulted ceiling over the naves. The layout of the inside is the result of sixteenth century Christian modifications and is in the Gothic style of the Portuguese Renaissance.

Behind the Southwest wall, the result of twentieth century restoration, we can observe the remains of the original mihrab. It is octagonal in shape and the stucco decoration can still be seen. This consisted of a series of blind, poly-foiled cusped arches covered by a cupola. The Almohad style mihrab is similar to that of the Almeria mosque, which was also the subject of a detailed study by Leopoldo Torres Balbas. The minbar seems to have been used as a pulpit until the sixteenth century. During the Muslim period the altar, which was moveable, was stored in a small adjacent room.

Today’s whitewashed walls fit perfectly with the regional style of a building that still bears traces of its Almohad origins.

BIBLIOGRAPHY RELATED TO THE MONUMENT

Ewert, C., « La Mezquita de Mértola (Portugal) », in Cuadernos de La Alhambra, 1987, nº 9, 1973, p. 3-36.

Torres Balbás, L., « El Mihrab almohade de Mértola », in Revista Al-Andalus, XX, 1955, p. 188-195.

REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amador de los Ríos, R., Memoria acerca de Algunas Inscripciones Arábigas de España y Portugal, Madrid, 1883, Imp. Fortanet.

Macias, S., et al., Mértola. Mesquita / Igreja matriz, Mértola, 2002, Campo Arqueológico de Mértola.

Nykl, A. R., « Arabic inscriptions in Portugal », in  Ars Islamica, XI-XII, 1946, p. 167-183.

Veiga, S. E., Memória das Antiguidades de Mértola, Lisboa, 1880, INCM, Câmara Municipal de Mértola.




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