Cordoba‘s peri­od of great­est glo­ry began in the 8th cen­tu­ry after the Moor­ish con­quest, when some 300 mosques and innu­mer­able palaces and pub­lic build­ings were built to rival the splen­dours of Con­stan­tino­ple, Dam­as­cus and Bagh­dad. In the 13th cen­tu­ry, under Fer­di­nand III, the Saint, Cordoba‘s Great Mosque was turned into a cathe­dral and new defen­sive struc­tures, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Alcazar de los Reyes Cris­tianos and the Torre For­t­aleza de la Cala­hor­ra, were erect­ed.