Long before modern tourism transformed Córdoba into one of Spain's best-known cultural destinations, European travellers were already fascinated by the city.

Almost 200 years ago, artists and writers journeyed through Andalucía in search of historic landscapes, Islamic architecture and a version of Spain that appeared very different from the industrialising societies they knew at home.

One of the most notable visitors was Scottish painter David Roberts, whose journey through Spain in 1832 and 1833 produced drawings that would later introduce Córdoba's monuments and landscapes to a much wider European audience.

David Roberts arrives in Córdoba

Roberts was one of the best-known travelling painters of the British Romantic movement.

During his journey through Spain, he made numerous sketches from life, including views of Córdoba. These were later developed into prints and published in his Picturesque Sketches in Spain in 1837.

His work became part of the visual culture surrounding European travel to Spain, helping audiences who had never visited the country imagine its cities, monuments and landscapes.

A Córdoba of bridges, mills and Islamic architecture

The images displayed in the current Córdoba exhibition offer a fascinating view of the city during the 19th century.

One of Roberts' best-known views shows the area around the Roman Bridge and Guadalquivir River, combining the historic bridge with the city's former flour mills and the silhouette of the Mosque-Cathedral.

Another focuses on the Albolafia mill and the remains of an Umayyad aqueduct, with the Puerta del Puente and Roman Bridge visible beyond it.

A third image moves away from Córdoba's monumental landmarks to show a more intimate setting, depicting an old mosque structure that had been transformed into a domestic space.

Together, the three works combine architecture, landscape and everyday life.

When art became part of the travel experience

The exhibition explores more than Roberts himself.

It looks at the role that artists and writers played in the development of modern tourism. During the 19th century, romantic travellers helped create an image of Andalucía as an exotic and picturesque destination, encouraging other Europeans to follow in their footsteps.

Their drawings, engravings and written accounts effectively became early visual guides to places that were still relatively unfamiliar to many international travellers.

Córdoba's monuments were therefore not only being visited. They were also being reproduced and circulated far beyond Spain.

The city through a romantic lens

Roberts' work was not intended to function as modern documentary photography.

His compositions were shaped by the artistic conventions of Romanticism, with dramatic light, carefully arranged views and scenes of local life contributing to the atmosphere of each image.

That means the prints offer both a historical record and an artistic interpretation of Córdoba.

Almost two centuries later, they also provide an opportunity to compare the city represented by Roberts with the Córdoba visitors encounter today.

See Córdoba through David Roberts' eyes

The Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba is currently bringing these historic views back into public view through the temporary exhibition Arte y Turismo en Córdoba. La Córdoba romántica desde la mirada de David Roberts.

The exhibition opened on September 22 and continues until October 18, 2026.

For today's travellers, the three prints provide a glimpse of a very different era of tourism, when a journey through southern Spain could inspire drawings, paintings and stories that travelled across Europe long after the traveller had gone home.

Córdoba may have changed considerably since Roberts visited, but the landmarks that fascinated 19th-century travellers remain central to the city's identity today.