Monumento a los Enamorados
The monument to the lovers, situated in Campo Santo de los Mártires, was unveiled in 1971 to commemorate the romance between the poet Ibn Zaydun and the poetess/princess Wallada, daughter of an Umayyad caliph and a Christian slave. The monument represents a temple formed by four columns without bases, a domed roof and a pedestal with two hands touching each other. The hands were sculpted by Pablo Yusti Conejo and the shrine by the architect Victor Escribano Ucelay.
Ibn Zaydun, who died in exile in Seville from a broken heart while still in love with Wallada, channelled his passionate love through his poems. When Wallada left him for another suitor, Zaydun, in desperation, wrote a letter to the princess’s new favourite as if he were writing it to the princess herself. This so infuriated Wallada that she flew into a rage and insulted the poet, calling him a scoundrel, an adulterer and a thief and Ibn Zaydun had no choice but to leave Cordoba.
