Church of Santa María Magdalena, the first of the Fernandine churches in the La Magdalena district

The church was founded in 1236, with Córdoba newly conquered by Ferdinand III, as one of the fourteen original Fernandine parishes of the city and the first of them all. It was built in the La Magdalena district, next to San Lorenzo, and for centuries served as the building model for the other Fernandine churches erected in the remaining districts. In 1729 its naves were covered with plaster vaults, and in 1791 Bishop Antonio Caballero y Góngora commissioned the architect Ignacio Tomás to build the tower that crowns the church today.

In 1872 a fire seriously damaged the building, which led to its suppression as a parish in 1890 and its integration under the basilica of San Pedro. Even so, the church remained open for worship for several more decades because it kept the devotion to the Cristo de la Salud, a 15th-century crucifix, until it closed for good in 1956 and the carving was moved to San Pedro. The building was then abandoned for a long time.

On 5 September 1990 a second fire, far more destructive than the first, completely gutted its interior, including the Mudejar roof of the central nave. Restoration lasted from 1995 to 1999, the year it reopened as a deconsecrated space without worship, converted into an exhibition and concert hall.

The visit to Santa María Magdalena is brief, barely a few minutes, and it is worth being clear about this before going: it is not a church with masses or parish hours, but a building visited as a monument and, depending on the programme at the time, as a cultural venue.

The interior keeps the basilica plan of three naves separated by pillars supporting double arches, with a tripartite chancel. The side naves are covered with ribbed vaults, while the central one, wider and taller, today displays a wooden coffered ceiling that replaced the one destroyed by the fire of 1990.

The Epistle doorway is the oldest of the three and the most cited for its marked Mudejar character: a pointed arch with archivolts on slender columns, framed by an alfiz decorated with diamond points. The Gospel doorway combines stepped jambs and a caliphal-tradition eave with Gothic canopies that once framed a scene of the Annunciation.

The main doorway, at the foot of the church, ends in a gable with an openwork rose window and an arch of flared Gothic archivolts, decorated with balls and mouldings.

The tower was built in 1791 on the commission of Bishop Antonio Caballero y Góngora, to a design by the architect Ignacio Tomás. It rises in decreasing tiers above the chancel of the church and marks the skyline of the La Magdalena district together with the church's tiled roofs.

Santa María Magdalena does not function as a parish today, so it has no mass times and does not depend on a religious community. Since reopening as a deconsecrated space it has served as an exhibition and concert hall, with capacity for 532 people, and its opening to the public depends on the cultural programme at any given time, not on fixed tourist visiting hours.

In 2026 the Kutxabank Foundation, to which the diocese of Córdoba has ceded the space, is processing with the Municipal Urban Planning Office the change of use needed to turn it into a permanent cultural centre, with an announced investment of 445,000 euros.

The church is in Plaza de la Magdalena, in the district of the same name, next to San Lorenzo, a short walk from the historic centre of Córdoba. It is one of the stops on the Fernandine Churches Route, an itinerary linking the eleven churches that Ferdinand III had built in the city between the 13th and 14th centuries.

If you prefer to see it with an explanation on site and in the company of a guide, the simplest way to include it in your visit is to join a free tour of Córdoba, which usually covers the historic centre and its oldest districts.

If you want to discover Santa María Magdalena together with the rest of Córdoba's historic centre, with no fixed entry cost, the Free Tour of Córdoba is the most convenient option: it lasts about 2 hours and you only pay the tip you consider fair, between 10 and 15 euros per person.

Book your place and explore with a local guide the corners of Fernandine, Jewish and caliphal Córdoba in the same morning or afternoon.