Twenty pieces from the archaeological site of Medina Azahara, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, have traveled to Vigo to be part of the exhibition at the Museum of the Sea in Galicia dedicated to the Vikings. Until September 28, the cultural space in Vigo hosts a selection of coins, tableware, architecture, and warrior gear from the caliphal palatial city of Córdoba, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, as part of the exhibition ‘Vikings: A Look from Galicia’, which also includes objects from the Gotland Museum in Sweden, as well as from nine Galician cultural institutions, totaling 75 pieces.
«The display of these historic Andalusian pieces in Vigo comes shortly after the closure of the first major monographic exhibition on the caliphal city of Córdoba held outside of Andalusia, in New York, where a total of 150 works on Medina Azahara were showcased,» recalled the Minister of Culture, Patricia Del Pozo, during the exhibition’s opening, where also present were the Minister of Culture, Linguistics and Youth of the Xunta de Galicia, José López Campos, the director of the Museum of the Sea, Marta Lucio Gómez, and the managing director of the Cidade da Cultura Foundation, Ana Isabel Vázquez.
The presence of these Andalusian pieces in the context of this exhibition on the Nordic incursions «demonstrates – in Del Pozo’s words – the excellent moment that this exceptional archaeological site linked to the Umayyads is experiencing, whose history and heritage continue to arouse great interest among the public.»
Patricia del Pozo emphasized the importance of ‘Al-Andalus’ in the Umayyad era to «contextualize and make known the imprint of the Nordic peoples on the Iberian Peninsula», given that it was precisely the Umayyads who faced the various incursions carried out by the Norse peoples in the Guadalquivir Valley and the Andalusian coasts between the 9th and 10th centuries.
Established in power, among other circumstances, as a result of the defeat they inflicted on the Norsemen, the Umayyads promoted the preeminence of ‘Al-Andalus’ in this high medieval period. Thus, as a symbol of their governance, they ordered the construction in 936 «of a newly planned city, a few kilometers from Córdoba: ‘Madinat al-Zahra’, literally ‘shining city’, which, fortunately, has come down to us with minimal alterations,» explained Del Pozo.
The Minister of Culture concluded her speech at the opening of the Galician exhibition by emphasizing «the unifying power of history and cultural heritage.» A power that allows «building bridges of dialogue and encounter between Andalusia and Galicia through a time marked by the presence of this people of Norse warriors from the sea.»
On the other hand, the Minister of Culture, Linguistics and Youth of the Xunta de Galicia, José López Campos, noted that this exhibition is a «broad historical portrait» that allows us to understand the impact of the Nordic incursions «on our territory, our culture, and our legends.» López Campos also highlighted that this initiative is «an example of understanding, collaboration, and reciprocity, fundamental pillars of cultural exchange and enrichment.»
Viking Culture
The Museum of the Sea in Galicia, located in Vigo, hosts from June 9 to September 28, the exhibition ‘Vikings: A Look from Galicia’, offering a unique journey into the footprint of the Nordic peoples in Galician culture. The exhibition is conceived as a continuation of the ‘A Viking Life’ exhibition held at the Gaiás Center Museum in Santiago de Compostela in the second half of 2024, which attracted over 60,000 visitors.
The exhibition, sponsored by the Xunta de Galicia and the Cidade da Cultura Foundation, brings together a corpus of 75 pieces from nine Galician cultural institutions, the Gotland Museum in Sweden, and the archaeological site of Medina Azahara in Córdoba. Among them are everyday items such as tools, jewelry, spearheads, personal hygiene utensils, coins, architectural remains, and a recreation of a large part of a Viking ship, made of cardboard by the Galician studio Cenlitros, based on the preserved specimens at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. It also includes four audiovisual pieces on various aspects of Viking culture and mythology, animated with illustrations by David Rubín, one of the most internationally renowned Galician authors.
The archaeological site of Medina Azahara has provided a total of 21 pieces for this exhibition, all dated to the 10th century. The selection includes two pieces of tableware (a jug and a pot, both ceramic), a white marble capital with vegetal decoration, an iron spearhead, a narrow-necked clay lamp, and sixteen coins from the mint of Medina Azahara, featuring vegetal and floral motifs, with religious inscriptions on the obverse and a marginal legend indicating the place and year of minting.
On the other hand, the Swedish institution contributes a selection of pieces that help understand the lifestyle, customs, and most common trades among the Scandinavian peoples during the so-called ‘Viking era’, a period that extends from the 9th to the 12th centuries.
In the Galician pieces section, the presence of the foundational stone of the West Towers or the crozier of Gonzalo, a bishop who, according to legends, prayed from the heights facing the coast and miraculously sank almost an entire Viking fleet, stands out.
Medina Azahara in New York
The Institute for the Study of the Ancient (ISAW), a graduate center of New York University, hosted from October 2024 to March 2025, the first monographic exhibition on the caliphal city of Córdoba organized outside of Andalusia. Across four sections, this exhibition, co-produced by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Junta de Andalucía, showcased to the American public the history of the creation of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, a novel subject for most Americans, who are largely unaware of the importance of the Islamic heritage and culture in the history of medieval Europe.
The New York exhibition displayed a total of 150 pieces, including 111 from four Andalusian museums: the Archaeological Site of Medina Azahara (36 pieces), the Archaeological Museum of Córdoba (30 pieces), the Museum of Jaén (44 pieces from the Charilla Treasure), and the Archaeological Museum of Jerez (two pieces). These were joined by around forty pieces from American collections: the Numismatic Society (29 pieces), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (3 pieces), the Brooklyn Museum (6 pieces), and The Hispanic Society of America (one piece).