At the center of the famous Spanish UNESCO World Heritage City of Cordoba stands an interesting structure known as the Mezquita; a building that has to be seen to be believed.  In a stunning reversal of the Muslim practice of converting captured churches into mosques, as with the case of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock and Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, the Mezquita was the former Great Mosque of Al-Andalus.. turned into a grand Catholic cathedral! * Officially known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Mezquita looks nothing like your typical Christian place of worship. A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic tale. * In fact, the Mezquita is one of the best examples of Moorish architecture, a very specific style of Islamic architecture popular across Southern Spain and Portugal, as well as North Africa. * Built in 784 AD under orders from the Emir of Cordoba, Abd al-Rahman I, the Mezquita is one of the crowning legacies of the Umayyad ...

Europe in the 1700s was a time of extravagance. The various royal houses of Europe were pretty much consolidated and stable within their borders, and while wars did break out between the major powers, some of the more interesting fighting happened in the realms of prestige and grandeur.  This was a period when royal courts competed over the best scientists, artists, entertainers, and philosophers to come and pretty much hang-out in their respective palaces. And this certainly was the period when they argued over who had the best, most "fabulous" home in the whole continent. * Thus this is the story of the Peterhof Palace and Gardens, a palace complex commissioned by Peter the Great. A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic and pre-Russia-Ukraine-War tale. * Which he ordered built, after his visit to the Palace of Versailles in France, widely regarded as the most beautiful palace of its time in Europe. * Peter the Great, renowned for bringing the i...