The history of a city like Toledo is woven with the threads of memory and with the evidence that the remains reveal, sometimes in unexpected ways. This is the case of a plot of land located in Cava Baja, in the heart of the Jewish quarter.
Honorio Martín, developer of a new five-unit building on the slopes of the Virgen de Gracia hill, knew from previous studies that the land presented a a pile of rubble about two metres high.
But what I didn’t imagine was that all those tons of demolition materials and rubble, which Fernando Martín, the project director, will never forget, hid the traces of an old house from the late Middle Ages and the signs of a hasty escapewhich archaeologist Rafael Caballero began reconstructing on August 18, 2021.
Archaeological remains discovered at a site in Cava Baja in Toledo corresponding to a house of a Sephardic family.
That day, the bucket of an excavator, operated by an operator named Beltrán, revealed the beginning of a brick arch of a vaulted space hidden for more than two centuries. It was the basement of a home of a wealthy family from the Sephardic community of Toledo from the late Middle Ages, 14th and 15th centuries.
We know nothing about their identity, but what careful archaeological work has discovered is that the expulsion of the Jews, decreed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1942, was a traumatic event for them that forced them to undertake a journey of no return during which they had to part with some of their most precious possessions, but not before making sure that no one would appreciate them..
To do this, they decided to throw them into a cistern, which seemed to be filled with rubble and on which a rigorous archaeological excavation was carried out during which all the layers were analyzed. A difficult task that was only possible thanks to the collaboration of Casas del Casco, promoter of the works, the technical management and the archaeological management.
In the deepest level, which dates back to the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century, and which presented a muddy composition of just over a meter thick, abundant faunal bone elements were recovered. Among them, sheep and goats predominate. Rodent remains, small birds and turtle shells, hake spines, eggshells and black pepper have also been documented. And even melon seeds, which could perhaps be planted six centuries later.
Remains of luxurious glassware found in the mud of one of the cisterns of the Sephardic house.
But the cistern’s mud also hid great archaeological treasures. Among them, glasses, cups, pitchers and lamps that would have been part of the luxury domestic tableware.Its appearance at the bottom of the cistern suggests to archaeologists that its owners preferred to break it and throw it into the cistern before it passed into the hands of the Christians.
Next to this precious bunch, some two hundred pieces of glass in the shape of a cap or thimble that were part of the looms on which rich silk fabrics were made.
In addition, with these manufacturing elements called ‘bearings’which were attached to the wheel with which the silk threads were twisted, the spindle of a decorated bone spinning wheel was recovered, which preserved the remains of the wooden rod in which it was embedded. Its discovery at the bottom of the cistern suggests to archaeologists that its owners preferred to break and throw the dishes and the loom into this water reservoir before it passed into the hands of the Christians.
Two hundred glass “bearings” that were part of a loom where rich fabrics were made.
“Some samples, thanks to the research project Glass centersfunded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, were able to be sent to laboratories in Chicago to find out whether the glass is imported or melted here“If it were proven that they came from Toledo, it would be a great discovery because at present there is only evidence of foundries in the Madrid town of Cadalso de los Vidrios,” explains archaeologist Rafael Caballero, who worked on the site.
Furthermore, its historical and archaeological value increases due to the fact that Only pieces similar to these are preserved in Granada, although they come from a Nasrid loom..
Swimming pool, cisterns and bathing pool
But this late medieval house – which remained uninhabited after the order to expel the Jews until the middle of the 16th century, when a high-born Christian, probably the Count of Portalegreused the site to build part of his palace- tAlso hides a unique closed circuit of water circulation.
It is about two cisterns for water supply with their corresponding mouths or edges and without connection between themwhich prevented water from mixing between the two tanks.
The first of these, square in plan, was associated with a small terracotta pipe.to create pressure, which was poured into a swimming pool.
This basin, through a small spillway, emptied into the second of the cisterns, which is L-shaped and surrounds the first on two sides.It was in the latter that the bearings of the loom and the glassware were found.
“Not mixing the waters is part of Jewish symbology“, explains Rafael Caballero.
Bathing or washing basin found in the patio of this Jewish mansion.
In the patio of this Jewish mansion full of secrets, which could be the trigger for new Toledan legends, it was also possible to catalogue a third cistern associated with a rectangular bucket with a step in which a person can sit. “It gives the impression that it is a bath or wash basin that was used to wash hands, feet or even instruments,” explains Caballero. And its importance is capital because this type of element is the first time it has been documented in Toledo.
Integrating the past into the present
But if the story that this late medieval house tells is surprising, it is also the care taken by ‘Casas del Casco’, the developer and construction company, and by the project’s architect, Benjamín Juan, from the ‘Arquitectos San Lorenzo 8’ studio, have shown this. in the same space, the past can coexist with the present.
Thus, the constructed area, which in the initial project was 500 square meters, increased as the archaeological remains were incorporated.. And the basement and the remains it contains have been incorporated into three of the five planned houses, giving them an obvious added value and spaces that recall the intra-history of Sephardic and Jewish Toledo.
All the houses, accessible from a shared patio, have two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, a toilet and, for some, an office.. “And in addition, all of them have been designed to offer splendid views of San Juan de los Reyes, the valley and the cigarrales area, the campus of the arms factory and even Parapléjicos,” explains Benjamín Juan.
But, in this case, as privileged as its views are its basements in which its owners, new residents of the Casco, will be able to continue to weave stories like those that this site has accumulated since the Bronze Age.
