A fire affects a wall and the roof of the Mosque of Córdoba.

The fire that broke out tonight inside the Mosque of Córdoba has been extinguished, according to the cathedral chapter. It is still early to assess the damage to the building, one of the jewels of world Islamic art, considered a World Heritage Site. The fire started around 9:00 a.m. in one of the chapels and spread to the roof. The fire was declared under control an hour later, after burning several areas. The flames and columns of smoke could be seen from different parts of the city, where today's temperature rose to 39 degrees.

The chapel where the fire started was used as a warehouse for machinery for temple maintenance, and municipal sources indicate that a sweeping machine caught fire due to a short circuit. The fire spread from the interior to the roof. Three firefighter crews were quickly dispatched to the scene, and the building's self-protection plan was implemented. The area has been cordoned off.

Until the fire is extinguished, which is being worked on by five firefighter crews and a crane, the building cannot be accessed to assess the damage. Miguel Santiago, spokesperson for the Mosque-Cathedral Platform, explained that the affected area is the eastern side, where the 16th and 17th century chapels are located, not the original part of the mosque, which dates back to the 8th century.

The San José Gate dates from the 10th century and was restored in 2017. Construction of the Mosque of Córdoba began in 784, after the Muslim conquest, and was expanded and modified over more than two centuries. After the Christian reconquest in 1236, a cathedral was added inside, giving rise to the current structure, the result of a blend of Islamic and Christian architecture, with the cathedral at its center.

This is the third fire that the building has suffered in its more than thousand years of history: the first occurred in 1910, after an electrical discharge in the temple cross, and the second in 2001, which destroyed part of the archive when two of them caught fire.

The mosque, built in the 8th century, is a world reference of Islamic art. It was converted into a Catholic cathedral in the 13th century and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.