The Torner�as Mosque was constructed in Toledo around 1060. Torner�as, along with the earlier Bab al-Mardum Mosque also in Toledo, is one of a small group of mosques constructed between the tenth and twelfth centuries in Iran, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. The mosques are modest in size and share an unusual square plan, composed of nine vaulted bays supported by columns or piers. Their diminutive size, coupled with the lack of a courtyard, suggests that the mosques served as private oratories. Torner�as is slightly later than the more famous Bab al-Mardum mosque, but like it, is constructed of brick. In contrast to Bab al-Mardum, in which each of the nine bays is ornamented with a different type of brick dome, of Torner�as' nine brick vaults only the central one is decorated. Distinguished by brick ribs which divide it into nine smaller squares, the central bay's diminutive squares in turn are ornamented with five different patterns created from the intersection or other decorative manipulation of brick ribs.
Sources:
R. Amador de los Rios. 1877. "Mezquitas llamadas del Cristo de la Luz y de las Torner�as," Monumentos Arquitectonicos de Espa�a. Madrid.
Manuel Casta�os y Montijano. 1914. "La Mezquita de las Torner�as en Toledo." Arte Espa�ol II, p. 101-106.
Francoise de Mont�quin, Compendium of Hispano-Islamic Art and Architecture, St. Paul: Hamline University Press, p. 209-210.
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