Among the tour guides of Córdoba, and even Andalusia, there is contained joy. Even a certain disbelief. As of January 1, 2027, they will be able to explain the mosque-cathedral to their groups of visitors from inside the monument, as established by the Andalusian Tourism Law of 2011 and Decree 8/2015 that regulates their activity in the community. They are guides accredited by this standard who have encountered an insurmountable barrier over the decades: the tests of the Cathedral Chapter of Córdoba to access this monument, a World Heritage Site, as guides and interpreters.
The law establishes in its article 54 that any official guide authorized by the community has the right to practice his profession in the properties included in the General Catalog of Andalusian Historical Heritage, in which the mosque-cathedral is located. However, its work has been limited for decades.
Inguíate has been the professional association that in the last three years has promoted claims regarding this closure of the Church, responsible for the property. The group was established in 2023 after the exams called by the Council that same year to be able to work in the mosque-cathedral. Previously, they had only been held in 2004 and 2017 due to the need to expand the small number of professionals with exclusive authorization from the bishopric to serve tourists who requested a guided tour. In 2025, the mosque reached 2.19 million visits. It is one of the most visited monuments in Spain, after the Sagrada Familia, the Alhambra in Granada or the Cathedral of Seville.
The decision to definitively open it to guides accredited by regional regulations, explained by the Cabildo, is due to the need to launch an “own” service of official guides to respond “to the demand for a guaranteed quality visit from the managers of the property.” They deny that the decision of free access for qualified professionals is due to the resolutions from public organizations that they have received in recent years.
Regarding the application of this announcement, January 2027, the Cabildo argues that this is a sufficient period “to give time to the organization of the guides themselves and the tour operators.” Over the years, the bishopric has defended the legality of its evidence as it is a “privately owned” monument. Now, they will offer the new official service at the Patio de San Eulogio visitor reception center, located in front of the cathedral mosque, in the premises of the Episcopal Palace.
“They aim to open their hand generously, a very interesting image move,” says Julio Díaz, vice president of the Inguíate professional association, ironically. “We have been celebrating since then, because there are people whose lives are going to change,” he says. “How can you be a tour guide in Córdoba and not be able to show the mosque-cathedral?” he asks.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Cabildo exam call in June 2023. It consisted of a written test of 100 questions and a second oral phase in which elements of the temple had to be analyzed and the applicants’ communication skills demonstrated. The syllabus was based on different “reference manuals”. Among them, the work The Cathedral of Córdoba, by Manuel Nieto Cumplido, historian and canon archivist of the mosque-cathedral for more than 40 years. Also books by Antonio Fernández Puertas, who was director of the Alhambra Museum for more than a decade, by the art historian María de los Ángeles Raya and by the architect Rafael Moneo.
“People came out very angry because they felt that the cards were marked,” explains Díaz. The most incomprehensible condition for the candidates was the impossibility of claiming their grade and reviewing the results of the tests. As the Council explained in the call, the final result was “unappealable.”
This is how a new generation of professionals joined other guides who had been suffering from this situation for decades. They were formed as an association in Inguíate and began making complaints, writing to the administrations and protests “to generate public debate” about their situation. An exclusion well known by guides from other Andalusian and Spanish provinces. The Cabildo only has 105 accredited guides, “barely 1% of the professionals in the territory,” Díaz emphasizes.
An “endless” administrative struggle
Thanks to his perseverance, the Andalusian Ombudsman opened an ex officio complaint in April of this year to learn about the actions of the different bodies of the Junta de Andalucía in the face of the persistence of the Cabildo’s “limiting practices” to the professional practice of guides and interpreters authorized by regional regulations. It did so after a first resolution of 2025 in which it recommended that the Territorial Delegation of Tourism, Culture and Sports develop the “necessary actions” to guarantee the free performance of the guides in the temple. The resolution of the Andalusian Competition and Economic Regulation Agency (ACREA) has also been decisive, which almost a year ago urged the competent entities to “promote the necessary actions to ensure that access and the exercise of the activity of tour guide and interpreter in the cathedral mosque compound conforms to the principle of single authorization”, according to the text dated August 2025.
The professionals of Inguíate have met on several occasions with the until now Tourism delegate of the Andalusian Government in Córdoba, Eduardo Lucena, who in his written response to the Ombudsman’s complaint limited himself to listing those meetings and the transfer of the Ombudsman’s writing and the ACREA resolution to the Cabildo. In addition to denying its ability to establish “other coercive measures” to apply tourism regulations.
“We hold the delegate responsible for this entire situation,” says Díaz, who does not understand that his role is that of a “mere mediator with the Cabildo.” They reproach him for “taking a profile” and not enforcing the law in the face of all the pronouncements of official organizations. EL PAÍS has tried to obtain, without success, the explanation of the delegate, who leaves his responsibility for the formation of the new Andalusian Government. It has not been the only autonomous body that has been quick to tell them that it is not competent to enforce the law, the association regrets.
After this “slam of the door” they have decided to send letters to the Ministries of Tourism, Presidency and Culture, to the Spanish Ombudsman and to the National Competition Market Commission (CNMC). “We were hoping that this opening would happen overnight,” Díaz acknowledges. The Council’s decision caught them studying the possibility of filing a complaint, which entailed great economic and personal cost. Finally, the announcement has come ahead of this new collective effort.
A “professional” demand
At Inguíate they have always tried to separate their professional activity from their opinion or assessment of how the monument is managed. They do not enter into the debate of whether the Cabildo’s evidence seeks to exercise strict control to make the Catholic vision of the monument prevail over its undoubted Muslim and Andalusian footprint. “The Cabildo is not our battlefield, it is the administration that must ensure compliance with the regulations,” Díaz insists after the long administrative journey.
To be a guide accredited by the Junta de Andalucía you must have a university degree, a C1 level of a second language and at least B2 of a third. “There are guides who have retired and have never been able to work here,” laments the vice president of Inguíate, sitting next to the Perdón door of the monument, the entry point for thousands of tourists every day. He himself has had difficulties with security in the Patio de los Naranjos itself while explaining the monument to the group from the outside.
To the economic damage of all these years, the association adds the difficulty of explaining to its clients why it cannot enter the main monument of the city with them. In fact, the possible claims would have motivated, in his opinion, the change announced by the Cabildo. Although they do not understand that the opening is not applied immediately.
These requests have been joined by the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Heritage of All platform, which has been denouncing “the ideological control of the Church in the management of the property” for years. In a statement, he harshly criticizes the management of the Andalusian Government in this conflict and demands “immediate compliance with the law.” They appeal to the “incalculable” property damage inflicted on authorized guides over time.
“I have a group of 55 people from Barcelona who come in October to see Almodóvar del Río, Medina Azahara, the Jewish Quarter and the Mosque… How do I explain all this to them?” says Díaz. Therefore, a question is asked: “How much money have we guides lost in all these years?” A damage that lasts “a lifetime”, which is why there are professionals who have left the activity without being able to carry out their work “in the jewel of their city.”
Now they have to wait until this long-awaited change materializes after what seemed “an infinite struggle.” Until you see it, you won’t believe it.