What happened to all those many old Spanish churches built before the Islamic invasion of Iberia in 711, and even those built afterwards? Well, most of them were destroyed by Muhammad I of Cordoba upon becoming the Muslim ruler in 852. St. Eulogius of Cordoba (+859) explains:
"Though the prince's (Muhammad I's) fierce conspiracy against God's Flock was growing and he was afflicting Christians everywhere and with greater frequency even so not everyone was rushing to his rite [i.e. Islam] as part of a more widespread collapse as he thought they would. So he ordered churches of more recent construction to be destroyed, and commanded that whatever stood out in the way of new adornments on the old churches---that is, anything that had been added to the basic structure of the old churches during the time of the Arabs--be dismantled. Seizing this opportunity, the satraps of hell undermined the roofs of temples that had, in fact, been erected in the time of peace by the zeal and industry of our fathers, [thus destroying some] nearly three hundred years after their foundation."
[Chapter 3, Book III, Memorial Sanctorum, by St. Eulogius of Cordoba]
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