A massive fire has broken out at the iconic Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba in Spain, but firefighters got the blaze under control in around an hour.

A fire broke out in the historic mosque-turned-cathedral in Cordoba on Friday but the monument was saved as firefighters quickly contained and then extinguished it, the Spanish city's mayor said.

The historic building in Southern Spain serves as a cathedral and was originally built as a mosque between the 8th and 10th centuries by Muslim ruler Abd ar-Rahman, before being converted into a cathedral in the 13th century.