On August 26, 1874, the castle of San Servando (or rather its remains) was declared National Monumentthus becoming the first castle in Spain to receive such recognition. But the reason for this distinction has always been more prosaic than aesthetic: the terrible secular abandonment it suffered, which degenerated into its use as a powder magazine, a corral to store livestock, a quarry to plunder its stones for other constructions, etc. Inveterate and institutionalized neglect and abandonment (it passed through the sad and empty guardianships of the cathedral, the town hall …), which reached its peak in 1873, when it was decided to put the property up for auction for 3,500 pesetas, saved by the bell from its complete destruction and almost certain disappearance, thanks to the intervention of the Provincial Commission of Monuments, sponsored with more enthusiasm than means by some lovers of Toledo among whom stood out Santiago Camarasawho promoted this statement.
If the statement had not been made, it would have been demolished and used the land for any purpose, or simply transformed it into the private castle of a potentate who had renovated it and floated it for private use. The official protection of the heritage of 1874 did not mean that investments multiplied in the city in general or in the castle in particular, which then experienced small palpable flashes in the repair of the Puerta del Sol in 1867, the reconstruction of San Juan de les Reyes and the rescue of the Cristo de la Luz mosque. The declaration of Saint Servand came accompanied by a fever of declarations also in Toledo: The Puerta del Sol was declared a “National Historic and Artistic Monument” by royal decree of March 13, 1878. A year earlier, by royal decree of May 1, 1877, it would be the Tránsito synagogue.
All of them were caused by the law of September 9, 1857 and its article 161. The key to the arc of these declarations was that their primary objective was to prevent the sale and obliged the State to carry out conservation and restoration work. The declaration of San Servado was the trigger for seven other buildings to be declared national monuments in Toledo during the last third of the 19th century.. Between 1900 and 1936, twenty-eight others were added. A fever that turned into delirium with the decree of December 21, 1921 of the Ministry of Public Education and Fine Arts, which granted the category of national monuments to the city’s historic walls, towers, gates and bridges, monumentally protecting the city.
State of the Castle of San Servando in 1900
In fact, there was even talk of declaring the whole of Toledo a national monument.which would have implied an unprecedented protection against the past, as a letter from May 5, 1926 from the Casa del Pueblo in Toledo, which a century later remains disturbingly young, states: “Putting such a project into practice in this country of endless files is equivalent to indefinitely delaying all kinds of construction work. On the other hand, since Toledo is not a city of great fortunes or splendid men, the aesthetic projects imposed on private owners by official entities would be mostly unrealizable, considerably reducing the number of new buildings and the repair of old buildings. The delay and reduction of construction work would therefore be the immediate effects of declaring Toledo a national monument. (…) In short, declaring Toledo a national monument would mean pushing it around with the iron boot of the Chinese, embalm him aliveto extend the city’s mortuary necrology, to mummify it. With our hearts and eyes turned towards the future, we oppose it with a categorical NO.
The castle today
These statements contributed to the image that still persists today in Toledo as a postcard city, physical or virtual, because these statements helped to forge the landscape, romantic and decadent aesthetic image of the city. a city so deeply rooted in the imagination of tourists and travelers, which certainly does not lack charm. But logically, the downside is that they also give a static image of the city that, even if they bring achievements, is a beautiful and promotional stone in the lottery of vanities to which humans in general and Toledoans in general are so prone. , like that of ‘the most beautiful view in the world’It is obvious that if you scratch the photo a little, you will find many damaged veins and rusty joints in the form of unused, underused or even directly ruined buildings.
Zorrilla’s verses are darkly illuminating Excerpt from “A Good Judge is a Better Witness,” originally published in 1838: Further on you can see the castle of San Servando, or Cervantes, where nothing has ever been done and where nothing is being done now thanks to the still insufficiently weighted figure of. Eduardo Lagarde Aramburo“the most versatile architect of Toledo that ever existed”, according to the great scholars and lovers of Toledo José Luis Isabel and Enrique Sánchez Lubiánfinally we get to work. Lagarde was an architect, a soldier, a designer, a poster artist, a caricaturist, a restorer of the dome of the Tavera Hospital, of the boarding school for orphans, a curator of the ruins of the Alcazar, responsible for the reconstruction of the Alcazar, San Juan de los Reyes, Santa Clara, the Concepción Francisca, the Hospital de Santa Cruz, San Lucas, San Miguel, the Plaza de Zocodover and… of a castle of San Servando, already non-existent on the inside and about to be so on the outside with no more than three sections of dismantled wall, to which a school is added and where she acts as she considers best required by the city and her personal ideal of restoration, managing to undo the always iron corsets of the boring literal opinions of the General Directorate of Fine Arts, in its thankless role as guardian of heritage legislation.
Engraving ‘View of Toledo’, with the ruined castle of San Servando
As stated Rafael del Cerro Malagón In one of the ABC articles of the series dedicated to the castle of San Servando, in 1943, with the encouragement of the Cultural Academy of the Youth Front, the idea of Attracting rural students to Toledo away from secondary education, to educate them and mitigate the endemic loss of talent in post-war Spain by saving brilliant students, all of this filtered, of course, according to the Falangist ideology. The castle of San Servando, until then relegated, was an ideal place for the enterprise. Conducive to the integration of classrooms, constituting a boarding school, it represents an enclave painted to cement a formative history compatible with the imagery of the Reconquest and the Crusade of the Franco regime.
A symbolic setting seasoned with a fascinating past of monks, warriors, writers, in which weapons and letters paraded. from the Cid Campeador, Alvar Fáñez, through Alfonso VI, to Zorrilla, Galdós or Góngoraonly a mystical place like San Servando could give it a certain plausibility. Once its great reform was completed, between 1945 and 1958, It eventually became an elementary school. As Rafael del Cerro Malagón recalls, in the first year it received 230 students: 80 boarders, 50 half-boarders and 100 day students. Almost all the pending cases received scholarships from the city councils, the Provincial Council and the Youth Front, with continuity at the centre not being allowed when cases remained pending.
The fortress has become a cultural space and has received various awards.
Since then it has had various public uses and reforms.which must be highlighted and given its fair and relevant value in a society in which the public is increasingly vilified as synonymous with outdated and ineffective, which has imprinted on the walls and soul of San Servando with a life, a history full of stories and a practical and popular use that saved it from the fate to which it was destined, that of being yet another historical ruin.otherwise a simple foreign souvenir of an old yellowing photo. Currently attached to the Community Council of Castilla La Mancha, It was the first and short-lived seat of the regional courts. until its transfer to the convent of San Gil, university residence until 1997, and youth hostelcommon use, becoming recognized, among other awards, as best hostel in spain in 2021with the REAJ Seal of Excellence and Hostelling International Commitment to Society and Environment in 2023, or with the Spanish Government’s SICTED 2024 Tourism Quality Commitment Seal.
Although perhaps the best sign of the vitality and pride of this ancient place and toll is this, With a capacity of 94 beds and 37 rooms, in 2024 alone it will have been a place of passage and stay for human beings from all regions of Spain and countries from all continents.having a sustained demand between high and very high throughout the year, to which undoubtedly contributes its uniqueness and strategic location in Toledo, also trying to contribute to the cultural silver age that the city is experiencing in recent years by collaborating with events such as it Erato Fest, Candlelight, Moonjunefest, Toledo Magic Citydifferent book presentations… In short, try to bring a little grain of sand to the tourist and intellectual pleasure of all those who come to one of the most beautiful and fascinating cities in the world, as it was, is and will continue to be, if time and authority permit, Toledo.
