Travels with Craig and Jeri: Spanish Holiday Day 20

Day 20: Toledo

This morning we took an hour drive (about 50 mi south) from Madrid to visit the ancient walled city of Toledo. Toledo is strategically surrounded on 3 sides by the Tagus River and because of this, it became an important Roman colony in the 2n d century BCE. After the fall of Rome, the Visigoths made it their capital city (around 500 AD). The Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the 700's eventually led to its emergence as a cultural center where Muslims, Jews and Christian lived and worked together until the 1400's. This was the period of the Inquisition and several pogroms leading up to it that led to expulsion, violent executions (flaying, burning, etc.) and mass conversions of Jews. This led to first the complete elimination of the Jewish population followed shortly by the Muslim population.

We first drove to a hill high above the city to get a bird's eye view. From here, we could easily see the Tagus River's role in protection of the city.

We were also able to see the old Roman bridge which is still in use today (as a pedestrian bridge into the city)

Our driver deposited us at the Gate to the Jewish Quarter.

At the height of Jewish importance and influence just before 1391, Toledo had ten synagogues and five to seven yeshivot. In 1492 there were five grand synagogues, two of which survive; the Tránsito, now the Sephardic Museum, and Santa María la Blanca,

El Transito was built in 1357 at the order of Samuel Levi, treasurer to King Pedro I. Archaeological finds suggest it was erected on the site of an older synagogue. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella after taking the building from the Jewish community, gave it to the Calatrava military order, which transformed it into a priory. During the Napoleonic Wars is served as barracks. In 1877 it was declared a national monument. When Spain’s Jewish community revived, the outbuildings became the Sephardic Museum.

Grave stones from the desecrated Jewish cemetery in Leo

Santa Maria del Blanca, "Saint Mary the White". is a bit of an odd name for a synagogue. As with most if not all Jewish homes and cultural entities, the synagogue was "appropriated" by the Church and repurposed as a Catholic Church. Built in the early thirteenth century, it was consecrated as a church in 1411.

It is not as large or well preserved as El Transito, but its 25 arches and 32 columns create an impression of vast space. The building is very similar in design to many Andalusian Mosques. The builders here were primarily Muslims and built what they knew.

El Greco ("the Greek", real name Doménikos Theotokópoulos). moved to Toledo in 1577. He had hoped to gain favor with Phillip II who was , at that time, building El Escorial (tomorrow's visit). He hoped that Phillip would grant him commissions for El Escorial. Unfortunately, Phillip II as well as most others at that time, did not appreciate El Greco's expressionistic style. He was way ahead of his time. It wasn't until the 20th century when he was rediscovered by the Expressionist Movement, was his true genius realized. Though Toledo was supposed to be a brief interlude for him, El Greco remained here the rest of his life.

He took over a villa in the old Jewish Quarter (that thanks to the Inquisition was now unoccupied) which we were able to visit.

The foundations of much of the construction of the Jewish Quarter was accessible via tunnels which were used by the inhabitants for storage, but more importantly, as a means of escape during the pogroms that lead up to the Inquisition and expulsion. This area under El Greco's home was a great example that has been restored.

The Quarter had some nice ceramic shops where we found some beautiful olive oil containers.

Toledo was also well known for its fine sword manufacturing. Molly tried to lift this broadsword, but decided that the epee may be a bit less unwieldy.