The Patios of Cordoba

Cordoba's houses turn inward around a courtyard, a plan inherited from Roman and Islamic building and well suited to a city that spends the summer above forty degrees. For two weeks each May the owners open them to anyone who queues, free of charge. Whitewashed walls disappear behind hundreds of pots of geraniums and carnations hung on brackets, watered twice a day by hand with a can on a long cane. There are wells, tiled floors, lemon trees and often a family sitting in the middle of it all. It is a judged competition with prizes, and households work on their pots the whole year for it.

What to look for

• San Basilio - the densest concentration of competing patios, and the longest queues.
• The hanging pots - walls covered in brackets, watered by hand from a long cane.
• Wells and tilework - the older courtyards keep their wellheads and glazed floors.
• The crosses of May - flower-covered crosses set up in squares in the same weeks.

When to go

The festival falls in the first half of May and the dates shift slightly each year. Go early in the day or late in the evening: mid-afternoon is hot and the queues are longest. A handful of courtyards run paid visits year round, which is a reasonable fallback in other months, though the flowers are past their best after June.

Practical notes

Queues at the well-known patios run to half an hour or more in the evenings, and the lanes get tight. May in Cordoba is already hot, and the festival overlaps with the crosses of May and the city fair, so beds are scarce and priced accordingly for weeks. Outside those two weeks most gates are simply shut.

Nearby

The Mezquita and Roman bridge, Medina Azahara outside the city and the Sierra Morena foothills.