How are the patios de Cordoba?
There is not a single type of Patio. Their size, for instance, varies from the huge Patio of the Mosque, to very small patios inside humble private houses.
As we have already mentioned, the idea of the patio originates in Cordoba from the Roman domus. The domus was however very large in size, and in areas in which the population concentrated in small extensions of land, they had to be redefined. Under these circumstances, many patios were made from the addition of several block of houses, each containing more than one apartment. The patio, in these cases, was a shared space. In the ruins of Medina Zahara (the impressive Alhambra style fortress and ruins located near Cordoba) there is a very good example of how these initial Muslim patios were (el Patio de Pilates and the Casa de la Alberca).
If we were to establish a way to classify the patios this could be the following one: Patios: popular patios, religious and monuments.