Toledo, the imperial city, hides many treasures between its walls, medieval streets and steep slopes. If you are thinking of visiting the city of the Tagus, we are going to give you a series of recommendations and show you its most essential places. If you are leaving with just enough time and you only have one day to explore it, do not worry because we are going to give you the most complete list so that you can leave Toledo with the feeling of leaving nothing, or almost nothing, waiting.
The first tip is that if you have traveled to the walled city with your own vehicle, it is best to park it upon arrival in one of the free areas or in a private car park if you cannot find a free space. Parking in the centre is almost impossible. One of the free car parks -Safont- is located very close to the bus station and a few minutes walk from the historic centre.
Toledo is the city of tolerance, of the three religions and of culture. When the romantic poet Rainer Maria Rilke came to Spain in 1912 in search of inspiration, he found it exclusively in this place: “There is nothing comparable to Toledo”. For the Austrian, it is the city “where the gazes of the living, the dead and the angels converge”, including that of El Greco, a Cretan painter who settled in the imperial capital from 1577, after having crossed Italy.
House and work of El Greco
The El Greco Museum in Toledo is the only one in Spain dedicated to the painter. It is located on the Paseo del Tránsito, in the heart of the Jewish quarter, and was the painter’s home since he moved to this city, declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.
It is a luxurious residence for its time with a garden, an interior patio and a chapel. You can see a complete Apostolate by El Greco, his “View and Plan of Toledo” and several male portraits made by the artist’s brushes.
“The Burial of Count Orgaz”, perhaps his best work and where his mannerist style reaches the height of excess, is however contemplated in the parish of Santo Tomé.
Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo, Lord of Orgaz, was a very pious man and benefactor of this parish, which has a magnificent Mudejar tower. The canvas represents his burial with the miraculous presence of Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine. The painter’s incomparable style offers us elongated figures, strange foreshortenings, supernatural lighting, bright colors and contemporary characters of the count with a ghostly appearance.
Three cultures
Being in the Jewish quarter, we began the visit of the temples that testify to the coexistence of the three religions in the Castilian-La Mancha city with two synagogues: Tránsito and Santa María la Blanca. The first also houses the Sephardic Museum, while it is one of the most beautiful synagogues preserved from the medieval period.
This museum traces the history of the Jews in Spain: from their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula, their golden age in the Middle Ages and their expulsion by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. The phenomenon of conversion, persecution and persecution is also explained. of the Inquisition and how the Sephardic communities were formed in exile.
Large arches resting on octagonal columns constitute the beauty, simplicity and mystery of the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca. These arches give the temple the unique sinuous appearance with its plant motifs and geometric lacework in plaster that draw the Star of David, as well as the beautiful Mudejar coffered ceiling.
The temple was built in 1180 as synagogue and it operated as such for 211 years, when it was expropriated and transformed into a church during he pogrom of 1391.
With the “tourist bracelet”, in fact, you can visit this place as well as six other monuments: the Cristo de la Luz Mosque, the “Burial of the Lord of Orgaz”, the Church of the Savior, the Church of the Jesuits, the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes and the College of Noble Maidens.
The next temple to visit can be none other than the majestic Primatial Cathedral of Toledo, a masterpiece of Spanish Gothic art, with high vaults and beautiful rose windows. Inside there are other works by El Greco, as well as others by Velázquez and Goya. The stained glass windows and the main chapel are the most impressive elements of the church. The chapel has a Renaissance altarpiece sculpted by various artists including Juan de Borgoña and Diego de la Cruz.
To complete the tour of the three cultures, just visit the Cristo de la Luz Mosque, a marvel of Islamic art.
This ancient building is a magnificent example of the survival of the art of al-Andalus: a mosque from the Caliphate era that was built in 999 and after two centuries of existence it was transformed into a church, to which an apse was added. that it respects the style of the primitive construction, giving rise to Mudejar art. Its interior is divided into nine spaces covered with ribbed vaults. The symbiosis of different cultures becomes a reality in this temple if we look at the Romanesque-Mudejar chevet from the 12th century or the Visigoth capitals that support horseshoe arches.
Bonus track modern and contemporary art
For those curious to see how modern and contemporary art is taking root in a city that has so much weight in history, just look at the Roberto Polo Collection. Opened in 2019, it is a state museum that houses a private collection.
The building that houses its permanent collection is the former convent of Santa Fe, built between the 9th and 16th centuries; In Cuenca, a second headquarters of the collection was inaugurated in December 2020 in the former church of Santa Cruz.
