Since the early 2000s, Muslims in Spain have lobbied the Catholic Church to permit Muslim prayer in the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. The cathedral was originally a Visigothic Catholic church, before coming under Muslim control during the era of Al-Andalus and being converted into a mosque, where it would undergo further renovations and expansion until eventually being reverted into a Catholic Christian cathedral during the Reconquista. Currently, Muslim prayer is often stopped by security guards. Spanish Catholic authorities were opposed to the request as of 2012, and the Vatican has been asked to intercede but has not responded. Background The building was begun around the year 500 as the Arian Christian Visigothic church of St. Vincent. After the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic kingdom, the church was divided between the Muslims and Christians. When the exiled Umayyad prince Abd ar-Rahman I escaped to Spain and defeated the Andalusian governor Yusuf al-Fihri, he allowed the Christians to rebuild their ruined churches, and purchased the Christian half of the church of St. Vincent. Abd ar-Rahman I and his descendants reworked it over two centuries to refashion it as a mosque, starting in 784. Additionally, Abd ar-Rahman I used the mosque (originally called Aljama Mosque) as an adjunct to his palace and named it to honor his wife. Traditionally, the mihrab of a mosque faces in the direction of Mecca; by facing the mihrab, worshipers pray towards Mecca. Mecca is east-southeast of the mosque, but the mihrab points south. The mosque underwent numerous subsequent changes: Abd ar-Rahman III ordered a new minaret, while Al-Hakam II, in 961, enlarged the building and enriched the mihrab. The last of the reforms was carried out by Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir in 987. It was connected to the Caliph's palace by a raised walk-way, mosques within the palaces being the tradition for the Islamic rulers of all times. The Mezquita reached its current dimensions in 987 with the completion of the outer naves and courtyard. The Castillian Reconquest In 1236, Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile in the Reconquista, and the mosque was turned back into a church. Alfonso X oversaw the construction of the Villaviciosa Chapel and the Royal Chapel within the mosque. To commemorate the reconquest, a statue of Saint James Matamoros, seen trampling Moors, was added near the front of the Royal Chapel. The kings who followed added further Christian features, such