To get to understand a city, especially when we are traveling, in addition to its history, art and urbanism, it is necessary to know its people, who day after day maintain their streets and activate the conciliatory mechanism of routine, visit markets and places that allow to see the essence of the place. But among those people so necessary, there are always some who survive the inexorable passage of time and become immortal, thus immortalizing the places in which they lived. And, of course, if we talk about a Cordovan with a superlative nose, we can not help but smile and think of a genius of the Spanish Golden Age: Don Luis de Góngora y Argote.
The brilliant writer was born in Cordoba on July 11, 1561, studying his university studies in Salamanca where he stood out as a poet. He held the position of racionero of the Cathedral of Córdoba, performing functions that allowed him to travel through Spain.
In 1617 he settled in the Court and was appointed chaplain to Philip III, despite which he never reached a stable economic situation, returning to his hometown in 1627, poor and with a lost memory, dying in his Cordoba on the 23rd of May of this same year of a stroke.
We are faced with a very controversial character, since despite being part of the Church, his contemporaries came to describe him as a person who loves luxury, gambling (probable cause of his ruin) and even accused him of demeaning the ecclesiastical habits . Faced with Lope de Vega, his enmity with Quevedo is legendary, thanks to which we know that Góngora was "a man with a nose stuck".
Our famous writer was the creator of a literary current known as culteranismo or even gongorismo, because around 1609 his poetry became much more complex, full of metaphors, mythological allusions and complex literary resources, even claiming that he did not write for the ignorant.
Throughout his life he composed romances, poems, satires ... highlighting the Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea and the incomplete Soledades.
If you want to know the personalities and secrets that make Córdoba a unique place, do not hesitate to join our guided tours. We are Córdoba Tips Tour and we offer a Free Tour through the Historic Quarter (Puerta de Almodóvar at 11am - in Spanish - and at 13:30 - in English) and a Free Tour on the Legends of the Jewish Quarter (Puerta de Almodóvar at 17 : 30). Remember that it is necessary to previously book our free tours, through the web https://cordobafreetour.es. The experts of the yellow umbrella await you!
