BY the time most European cities were still dumping chamber pots into the street, Cordoba was quietly revolutionising urban living.

Between the 10th and 13th centuries, this Andalucian jewel – then the beating heart of the Umayyad Caliphate – pioneered a sanitation system so refined, so seamlessly integrated into civic life, that its sophistication wouldn’t be matched in Europe for another 700 years.

Now, a groundbreaking study by archaeologists Rafael Blanco-Guzman and Jesus Atenciano-Crespillo, recently published in Al-Mas?q: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, is shedding light on just how forward-thinking Córdoba really was. Drawing on over 300 archaeological excavations and Islamic-era manuscripts, the research paints a vivid portrait of a city that placed urban hygiene at the very core of its identity – alongside beauty, intellect, and order.

A city beneath the city

At the centre of Cordoba’s sanitary marvel was an extensive and highly engineered sewer system, threading through the ancient Medina like an invisible lifeline. Believed to have been launched under the reign of ?Abd al-Rahm?n III and expanded during the era of Almanzor, the infrastructure was visionary. Constructed from thick ashlar blocks, sealed with lime mortar, and capped with precision-cut stone slabs, the network efficiently whisked wastewater away from the city and into the Guadalquivir River – all quietly, cleanly, and underground.

The level of coordination suggests centralised, possibly even caliphal, oversight – a sign that cleanliness in Cordoba was more than just a personal virtue. It was policy.

Designing for dignity

Inside private homes, latrines and cesspits became common by the 10th century. Unlike many of their European counterparts, Cordoba’s residents enjoyed thoughtfully positioned latrines near streets, linked by ceramic pipes that blended practical engineering with architectural grace. Soil filtration systems ensured groundwater remained untainted. In newly developed suburbs, latrines were part of the original blueprint – a rarity in the medieval world, where sanitation often played catch-up to construction.

In shared courtyards and family compounds, neighbors collaborated on waste disposal logistics, with decisions often made communally and guided by a blend of Islamic legal norms and pragmatic good sense. Cesspits were located carefully, away from water sources, and with full buy-in from everyone affected. 

Civic cleanliness as a cultural ideal

Cordoba’s streets didn’t just appear clean – they were. Regulations required that property owners keep the areas in front of their homes spotless, while city officials such as the mu?tasib (market inspector) and the local judge wielded real authority to enforce public hygiene standards. If cesspits became a nuisance or a water source was at risk, the law acted swiftly.

And though the work of cleaning pits and drains often fell to society’s most marginalised, it was not ignored or undervalued. The city paid for it, recognised its importance, and regulated it – an early example of essential labour being both acknowledged and institutionalised.

Legacy in stone (and soil)

Long after the Christian conquest in 1236, Cordoba’s sanitation system continued to function – a silent, subterranean testament to its resilience. Even centuries later, elements of the infrastructure remained operational, astonishing archaeologists with their endurance and elegance.

But perhaps most striking is the cultural legacy left behind. Cordoba’s approach to hygiene wasn’t just technical – it was communal, legal, and deeply ethical. It was a city where infrastructure reflected ideology: where the physical cleanliness of the streets mirrored a societal aspiration toward harmony, order, and public good.

A Medieval marvel, reconsidered

This new research repositions Cordoba as a dazzling outlier in the history of urban planning – a medieval city that treated sanitation not as an afterthought, but as an essential expression of civic pride. It reminds us that progress isn’t always linear and that innovation can bloom in the most unexpected eras.

So next time you’re sipping wine in the shadow of the Mosque-Cathedral or wandering the narrow lanes of the Jewish Quarter, remember this: beneath your feet lies one of Europe’s first great feats of urban hygiene –  a story not just of stone and sewage, but of enlightened living.

GIBRALTAR’S mercurial new government media director would quite like to be playing the guitar or indulging his passion for cinema and documentaries.

But instead, Anton Calderon, 43, will be leading the drive to bring the government press office out of the ‘analog world’ and into the brave new one unfolding before us.

Already a garlanded documentary-filmmaker with his own production company, Calderon has been tasked with ‘crafting a voice for the government of Gibraltar to tell the stories we want to tell.’

“Some of the issues which we would consider to have quite a solid consensus about liberal democracy and the way our society should function are coming under fire a little bit and being questioned,” Calderon told the Olive Press.

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“So one of the first things we have to do is reaffirm the role of government, of public services, and the civil servants; the value and the importance of these being robust and strong and trusted by the public.”

Calderon is planning a new form of communication that will extend beyond the old realm of the hallowed government press release.

It means utilising social media channels, crafting videos – even TikToks – that showcase Gibraltar’s institutions at work to ‘inform people of what we are doing.’

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“Gibraltar’s institutions are extremely valuable things that we have created, and they provide super high levels of quality of life and care and support to citizens.

“We want to help people to engage with the public services and help them understand their value.”

Social media will play a key role.

“Social media has been used for quite some time as the provider of feedback to government of the way people feel about policies and changes – but I don’t think it does that job anymore.

“It often becomes a bit of a boxing match where the most forceful and extreme views fight it out.”

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One fresh idea is to rely further on polling – both quantitative opinion polls and qualitative focus groups, which take inspiration from previous award-winning work he has done.

“The Needle, the documentary I did for GBC, was basically a poll.

“We asked people about how they felt about a series of issues, and then we had debates about the data and interviews.

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“You have a lot of perceptions and a lot of subjects in that program. The poll ran only for like a week, but it had more than 3,000 or 4000 entries.”

Ultimately, the citizens and residents are going to see more streamlined government communications, incorporating not just the various government departments, but the unsung heroes of public infrastructure and the civil service.

“Soon, we’ll move on from the government press office to the government communications department.”