Festival de los Patios de Córdoba

The Córdoba patio is a Roman and Moorish inheritance: a whitewashed courtyard at the centre of a house, cooled by a fountain and covered in potted geraniums, carnations and jasmine hung on the walls. For a fortnight in May around fifty families open theirs free to anyone, and a municipal competition judges them.

UNESCO inscribed the festival in 2012. The residents who keep these patios are mostly elderly, and the listing was in part an attempt to keep the practice alive.

No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.

The practical point: these are private houses on published opening hours, with queues at the best-known ones in the San Basilio and Santa Marina districts. Early morning and the last hour of the evening are when they can be seen properly, and May in Córdoba is already hot.

PlanningA fortnight in early May — the patios are private homes and only open on published hours.