Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba

Description:

• As you cross the Plaza del Potro to reach this fine-arts museum, notice the fountain at one end of the square. Built in 1557, it shows a young stallion, with forelegs raised, holding the shield of Córdoba. Housed in an old charity hospital on the plaza, the museum contains medieval Andalusian paintings, examples of Spanish baroque art, and works by many of Spain's important 19th- and 20th-century painters, including Goya, Sorolla, Zurbarán, Murillo, and Valdés Leal. Of particular interest on the ground floor are sculptures by Juan de Mesa and Mateo Inurria, both Spanish artists. Ferdinand and Isabella themselves founded this former Hospital de la Caridad, and twice they received Columbus here. The museum is east of the Mezquita, about a block south of the Church of San Francisco.

• © Frommer's 2013