In the Islamic period it served as a place for public activities (administration of justice, education). The arches from the oratory to the courtyard were open.
A porticoed courtyard was designed from the outset (the galleries began to be built under Abderraman I and were completed under Hixem I, who built the minaret and the ablutions room).
The present-day cloisters are the result of a total remodelling carried out in the first decades of the 16th century by Bishop Martín Fernández de Angulo, under the direction of the architect Hernán Ruiz I.
Under the orange trees there is a large cistern that provided the water necessary for the purifications of the Muslims. It was already planted with palm trees in the 13th century, and we know of the existence of orange trees there since the 15th century. Olive and cypress trees were added in the 18th century.
English 
Spanish