Bethlehem in Cordoba

The former Jewish quarter of Cordoba is organized around Renaissance palaces with arcaded inner coutyards, which until 1492 were owned by wealthy Jewish merchant families, and then by Castilian aristocrats. I will write about them soon. Now I only want to write about the one in which we find Jews even five centures after their expulsion in 1492. And not just Jews, but an entire Jewish city. Or perhaps two.

The 16th-century palace of the Marquis of Motilla – theirs is also the 10th-century Almodóvar, the best-kept Spanish castle where many scenes of the Game of Thrones were shot – is a Catholic youth center today. Its gate is invitingly open in the weeks before Christmas, when a model of Bethlehem is on display in its courtyard.

The belén or presepe is a genre of representation in the Mediterranean, with parishes and communities competing to create a more vivid and more touching Nativity scene. But here it is as if they really wanted to create a model of the ancient Bethlehem, in the full length of the courtyard.

The city model begins at the only gate of Bethlehem, surrounded by the typical clay houses of the Middle East. In the background, Roman soldiers (eunt domus!) are just promulgating the census decre of Emperor Augustus. In the foreground, the first Bethlehem expats are already arriving home, and negotiating accommodation at the inn. The rabbit in the vegetable garden feels totally safe, as its flesh is not kosher. To the right, the small house with the woman exiting in contrapposto with the probably full bucket, and with the chariot of firewood, is a real Italian neorealistic movie cutout.

We see the inside of a carpenter’s workshop, with the carpenter angrily sawing, and his little son sitting on the ground and watching him with reverence. Of course, there had to be some carpenter’s workshops in Bethlehem. But if we move a little aside, we also see the young wife sitting in the back room. This is too many hints to miss the Holy Family. However, then we are a few years later and in another city, Nazareth.

John Everett Millais, Christ in the house of his parents (The carpentry shop), 1850

That Nazareth is in fact already present in Betlehemben, is confirmed by the next scene, where the angel greets the same young woman in her room in Nazareth. The dove of the Holy Spirit has just arrived upon the roof.

And right next to it, another angelic apparition: the annunciation to the shepherds, who are about to direct their flocks to the city. But the camels of the three kings have already gotten there, and just kneeling down to offer the gift bags.

And meanwhile, life goes on without stopping among the houses of the city: a fair is held, carpets, pots and vegetables are sold, they are washing and fishing in the creek. “When the aged reverently, passionately waiting / For the miraculous birth, there always must be / Others, who did not specially want it to happen…”

And finally the camera, like in a panoramic shot, return to its starting point, the city gate. But time has passed in the meantime. The couple, who had just entered the gate and got a baby, are now leaving the city and the country, away for Egypt. Here the story falls off the sand table, and continues in the Ethiopian frescoes.