El Patio de la Casa de Las Campanas

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• Museum
• Open daily11AM-2PM, 6-10PM
• Under 1 kmfrom Córdoba center
• Wheelchair accessrestroom
• Good for kids
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A medieval house that learned to ring bells

The Casa de las Campanas—also called the Casa de las Siete Revueltas after its street—began life in the 14th to 15th centuries as a noble residence in the Granadino Mudejar style, tied to the Hispano-Muslim period and the ornamental vocabulary of Nasrid art. What survives is the east wing of what was once a larger palatial house, and it remains one of very few examples of true Mudejar domestic architecture left in Córdoba.↗↗↗

Its evocative nickname comes from a later chapter: at some point the building housed a foundry casting bells, the 'campanas' that gave the house its name. It has worn other identities too. Once part of the estates connected to the Duke of Alba, it passed in the 19th century to the architect Amadeo Rodríguez, who adapted it around 1897 to run a steam-driven flour mill, earning it the alternative sobriquet 'Casa del Molino.' The Association of Friends of the Cordoban Patios took it over in the early 1980s precisely to save such singular buildings from disappearing.↗↗↗

That custodianship paid off: the main patio has carried the designation of Historic-Artistic Monument since 1982, and in 2001 the regional government formally declared the whole house a Bien de Interés Cultural in the category of monument, entered in Andalusia's General Catalogue of Historic Heritage.↗↗

Two patios, one carved archway between them

The courtyard is reached through a generous Mudejar portico: pointed horseshoe and polilobulated arches with up to thirteen lobes spring from stone columns topped by palm-leaf capitals, framing a doorway dense with carved stucco. On either side of the entrance the walls show sebka latticework, bands of stylized floral motifs of Almohad lineage, and geometric interlace of sixteen-point stars running through the arch, while the outer framing band is scored with Kufic-style inscriptions and raised vegetal relief. Overhead, the gallery's timber coffered ceiling—alfarjes of elongated hexagons and octagons—still shows traces of vivid old polychromy.↗↗

Beyond the portico opens the first, larger patio, laid out as both garden and auditorium. A great stage (tablado) at one end signals that this is a performing space as much as a courtyard, and the ground is paved in traditional Cordoban pebble work. A central wellhead (brocal) anchors the open space, ringed by plants that change with the season and tall, slender cypresses that lend the room its quiet, panoramic character.↗↗↗

A beautiful interlaced-arch doorway (arco angrelado), a signature Mudejar form, links this main court to a second, more intimate patio. Here the house feels most like a classic Cordoban courtyard: walls all but hidden behind pots—mostly red geraniums and gitanillas, with begonias, fuchsia 'queen's earrings' and yellow jasmine—set against whitewashed surfaces, with doors, windows and pots painted a deep blue. A narrow, steep stair climbs to the upper floor, and collections of pottery nestle among the ferns and aspidistras that suit the smaller court's shade.↗↗↗

Even the threshold carries a story. At the entrance, an image of Córdoba's guardian, the angel San Rafael, stands in a niche; a tile in the gallery remembers Antonio Mondéjar, the flamenco maestro and choreographer whose spirit runs through the house, and he and his family have long been charged with tending these patios alongside fellow caretakers of the association.↗↗

Where flowers meet flamenco

The Casa de las Campanas is not a frozen monument but a stage. During the Festival of the Patios—the spring celebration of the courtyard tradition recognized by UNESCO—the house takes part in the municipal contest and hosts evening performances in its big patio: flamenco nights with singers, guitarists and dance companies, copla recitals, and classical concerts, typically after ten at night, when the lit courtyard becomes an open-air auditorium under the cypresses.↗↗↗

Outside the festival, the association keeps programming artistic and cultural activities in the house throughout the year, so the tablado rarely stays silent for long. A daytime visit rewards you with the flowers and architecture; an evening one during Feria season may give you a cante jondo echoing off Mudejar plasterwork.↗↗

Visiting the Casa de las Campanas

The patio is on the Calle Siete Revueltas, number 1, in the Centro district within the Santiago-San Pedro neighbourhood—one of the historic quarters that make up the heart of the Cordoban patios route, an easy and atmospheric walk from the cathedral and the old bridge. The house is open daily for visits in a split schedule, roughly 11:00–14:00 in the morning and 18:00–22:00 in the evening, with festival nights running to the later of these hours for performances.↗↗

Entry to the patios during the Festival is free of charge, though a small voluntary donation to the association is a fitting way to support the gardeners who keep these courtyards blooming. Because it is a living historic house rather than a fully modernized museum, expect stepped levels, uneven old flooring and narrow stairs, and check ahead if you need step-free access—although a wheelchair-accessible restroom is available on site.↗↗↗

For the best of both worlds, plan a late-afternoon or evening visit in May: the flowers at their peak, the light low across the white walls, and the strong chance of catching live music in the great patio. Outside May the house is quieter and easier to appreciate at your own pace.↗↗

Highlights

A surviving 14th–15th-century Mudejar palace wing in the Granadino style, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural.↗

Carved-plaster entry portal with polilobulated arches, sebka lattice, Kufic inscriptions and a painted timber coffered ceiling.↗

A garden-and-auditorium first patio with a performance stage, central wellhead and tall cypresses.↗

A second, intimate traditional Cordoban patio reached through an interlaced Mudejar arch, walls buried in blue-potted flowers.↗↗

Live flamenco, copla and concerts during the UNESCO-listed Festival of the Patios each May.↗↗