Where to park in Córdoba to visit the old town

What the ACIRE zones are and why you should stay out

ACIRE stands for área de circulación restringida, restricted traffic area. The city council divides the old town into numbered zones that only residents, vehicles with a garage inside and other permit holders may enter. Inside, pedestrians have priority and the speed limit is 20 km/h.

Each entrance has a sign with the zone number. Some have bollards that drop with a card; others have cameras that read the plate of every vehicle going through. Under the municipal rules, the system checks the plate and, if it is not authorised, issues the penalty automatically. No barrier stops you, so it is easy to drive in without noticing while following the satnav.

Besides the numbered zones there are specially protected areas, among them the surroundings of the Mosque-Cathedral, the Puerta del Puente, Plaza de la Corredera, Capuchinos and the San Fernando axis. If any of those is your destination, assume you cannot reach it by car.

The low-emission zone

The 2023 mobility bylaw created the low-emission zone (ZBE) and made it match the ACIRE zones. It is not a separate or wider perimeter: it is the same restricted old town.

Bicycles, vehicles with a Spanish 0 or ECO environmental badge, and vehicles with any badge heading to a car park that can only be reached by crossing the zone may drive through without a permit. The exemptions include residents, users of garages inside, holders of a disabled parking card, taxis and hotel guests. Breaking the restriction is classed as a serious offence.

One point that confuses people: an ECO or 0 badge frees you from the environmental restriction, but street parking inside the ACIRE zones is still limited to marked bays and permit holders. For a visitor, the practical conclusion is the same.

If your hotel is inside the old town

Guests of hotels and guesthouses inside a restricted zone may drive in. The accommodation handles it: it reports your number plate to the city council online so the camera does not generate a penalty. Give the hotel your plate before you arrive, or at the desk at the latest, and ask which street you should enter by.

The authorisation covers driving in and stopping outside the establishment to check in and unload. If the hotel has no parking of its own, the rules say the car must leave the zone afterwards. For later entries you must carry the identification card the hotel gives you.

For a one-off entry caused by a justified emergency there is the comunicación previa, a municipal online form (in Spanish). It is filed between 48 hours before and 48 hours after the entry, is limited to two per vehicle per week, and is not valid for the stretch from Ronda de Isasa to the Puerta del Puente. The ACIRE office answers on 957 469 703 on weekdays from 10:00 to 13:00.

Blue zone: what it costs and how long you can stay

There are metered streets, marked with blue lines, around the old town and in the shopping district. The 2026 tax bylaw sets a maximum of two hours, which costs non-residents €1.70. The minimum is €0.25 for fifteen minutes and an hour comes to about €0.85. You pay at the meter and leave the ticket visible on the dashboard.

If you overrun the time on your ticket, for the following hour you can settle it by paying €3. With no ticket at all the amount is €6. Beyond that margin it becomes a fine. The paying days and hours are set by the council zone by zone and appear on each street's sign and on the meter itself: read them there before you pay.

Holders of a disabled parking card neither pay nor have a time limit if the card is on display. Zero-emission electric vehicles get the first hour of the day free.

With a two-hour cap, the blue zone suits an errand or a lunch, not a day of monuments. The Mosque-Cathedral alone takes an hour and a half.

Paid public car parks

To spend the day, the comfortable choice is an underground car park on the edge of the old town. There are some around Paseo de la Victoria and one at the railway station, which has its own car park according to Renfe and is about 25 minutes' walk from the Mezquita or one ride on bus line 3.

The council does not publish a single list of pay-by-the-hour car parks with their rates, and each sets its own price. Look at the board at the entrance before you take a ticket. The bylaw lets you cross the low-emission zone to reach a car park with any environmental badge, but follow the car park's signs and not the satnav, so you do not end up in an ACIRE street.

Where to park for free and how far you walk

Outside the ACIRE zones and the metered streets, parking on the street is free. The free area nearest the monuments is the south bank of the Guadalquivir, the Miraflores and Campo de la Verdad neighbourhoods behind the Calahorra tower. From there you cross the Roman Bridge, which is pedestrian-only, and in about eight minutes you are at the Mezquita.

On weekends in May, in Holy Week and on long weekends those streets fill early. Arrive early or accept a few more minutes' walk from further out. Leave nothing on show inside the car, as in any tourist city.

Leaving the car and using the bus

We have found no park-and-ride scheme with a shuttle on the council's website or on Aucorsa's, but you can do much the same yourself: park near a stop and take the bus. Aucorsa line 3 passes the station and stops at Tendillas, San Fernando, the riverside, the Puerta del Puente and the Alcázar. It runs every 12 to 15 minutes on weekdays.

A single ticket costs €1.30 and is paid on board, in cash or by contactless card. The 24-hour tourist card costs €5 and the 72-hour one €10.

Motorhomes, reduced mobility and Medina Azahara

For motorhomes we have found no council-owned area advertised on the city website. The paid areas operating near the centre are private and publish their own terms. The ACIRE restrictions apply to a motorhome just the same, with the added height and weight limits of the old-town streets.

If you hold a disabled parking card, you can use reserved bays across the city without paying. Entering the ACIRE zones with that card requires a municipal authorisation for the vehicle, or a comunicación previa for a one-off; having it on the dashboard is not enough.

At Medina Azahara you cannot drive up to the ruins. You park at the museum car park, and the shuttle bus leaves from there.