Toledo, Spain
The city of Toledo is the capital of the province of the same name, and is also the capital of the Autonomous Community (like an USA state but with less independence from the central goberment) called Castilla-La Mancha. The city is located at 529 metres above sea level, in the Castillian meseta (plateau), practically in the centre of the Iberian peninsula, and just 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Madrid on the A42 highway.
Toledo has a typical continental climate, cold in winter and hot in summer, although slightly tempered by the presence of the Tajo river flowing around its historic centre. The months of November and February generally bring the most rainfall, though not particularly heavy, and snow is unusual.
Although the city is small in size, it is a leading political, economic and social center, oriented primarily towards the production of its characteristic crafts (swords and medieval weapons mainly) and the promotion and care of its great historical, artistic, and cultural heritage.
With the exception of the mountains along the southern fringe, the province, one of the largest in Spain, is a land of flat terrain devoted primarily to agriculture, livestock and light industry. It is traversed by the Tajo (Tagus) river, on the banks of which the two most important cities can be found, Talavera de la Reina and the capital itself.
In December 1987, the UNESCO declared Toledo a World Heritage city in recognition of its uniqueness. This is due as much as anything to its special history, since in the past the city was host to Christian, Islamic and Hebrew culture and the architecture of the city relects this - being almost impossible to walk its streets without coming across an ancient mosque, a Gothic or Mudejar church, a Romanesque or Visigothic structure, a synagogue, or a Renaissance palace.
Toledo History
The historic city centre sits on a craggy rock, which is almost completely encircled by a wide meander of the Tagus river, called the Tajo in Spanish. The Roman historian Tito Livio mentioned the city of Toletum, a term whose origin would be Tollitum, meaning "raised aloft". The city's historic centre is one of the largest in Spain, and has more than 100 monuments.
Toledo has a long and prodigious history. It was a fortified urban zone even in the era of the Iberians, before the arrival of the Romans who conquered it in the year 192 BC. Later, the Barbarians would invade the by-now decadent empire. Among these were the Alanis and the Visigoths. In the year 411, the Alanis captured the town, but their victory was short-lived; seven years later the Visigoths would conquer Toledo. By the 7th century, the Visigoths completely dominated the Peninsula, making Toledo the capital of Spain. This situation lasted for 124 years, until the arrival of the Moors in 711.
During the first three-and-a-half centuries of Moslem rule in Al Andalus, Islam dominated Toledo, called 'Tolati-Tola' by the Moors. This period saw the three major religious communities - Moslems, 'Mozarabes' (Christians living under Moslem rule in medieval Spain) and a significant Hebrew minority - all living peaceably together.
In 1035, Alfonso VI of Castilla captured the city and made it his capital. The Jewish community continued to have a significant presence, and became one of the most flourishing in the world. The heritage they left includes two ancient synagogues in the Jewish quarter. Along with the Jews and the Christians were the 'Mudejars', the Moslems living under Christian rule. They gave birth to a unique artistic style, the 'Mudejar', a synthesis of Christian and Moslem aesthetics and possibly the most characteristic of Spanish artistic trends that survived well after the Moslem presence quit the Iberian Peninsula.
Toledo in the 13th century saw a tremendous cultural revival under King Alfonso X El Sabio (The Wise), and the School of Translators was established. The sages working there translated works from Arabic or Hebrew into Latin. They thus brought to Europe the knowledge of the erudite Moslems, far superior to Christian learning of the time. But even more importantly, these translations were the means through which Europe rediscovered classical learning, as the works of all the great Greek philosophers and other learned men had first been translated into Arabic.
Despite the fact that later Monarchs had itinerant courts and no longer established them in Toledo, the city retained its significance until the end of the Christian "Reconquest" of Spain in 1492. It was then that the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled the Jews from their kingdoms. The expulsion of the Jews, and with them their cultural and socio-economic importance, had a serious impact on the city.
In the 16th century, when the Spanish Empire was in full bloom, Carlos I of Spain and V of Austria settled his court in Toledo. Unfortunately, the Empire itself led to the decline of Toledo. The city was too small for administering the Empire's vast resources, and in 1561, Felipe II moved the court to Madrid. Ironically, Madrid had gained importance only as a military outpost for the defence of Toledo. The once-imperial city fell into decline, and never again regained its past importance.
In the 20th century, the last of the Spanish civil wars rent the country between 1936 and 1939. At the beginning of the struggle, Toledo acquired crucial psychological and propagandistic importance as the city was entirely in Republican hands, except for the besieged Alcázar (castle). Nevertheless, the city languished again during the four decades of Franco's dictatorship. This changed with the arrival of democracy at the end of the 1970s. Spain was structured into 17 autonomous communities (similar to federal states) and Toledo became the capital of one of them, Castilla La Mancha. As a regional capital, it has successfully recovered some of its dynamic past.
Arts and culture
Cervantes described Toledo as a "rocky gravity, glory of Spain, and light of her cities." The old city is located on a mountaintop, surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Tagus River, and contains many historical sites, including the Alcázar, the cathedral (the primate church of Spain), and the Zocodover, a central marketplace.
From the 5th century to the 16th century about thirty synods were held at Toledo. The earliest, directed against Priscillian, assembled in 400. At the synod of 589 the Visigoth King Reccared declared his conversion from Arianism; the synod of 633, guided by the encyclopedist Isidore of Seville, decreed uniformity of liturgy throughout the Visigothic kingdom and took stringent measures against baptized Jews who had relapsed into their former faith. The council of 681 assured to the archbishop of Toledo the primacy of Spain.
As nearly one hundred early canons of Toledo found a place in the Decretum Gratiani, they exerted an important influence on the development of ecclesiastical law. The synod of 1565–1566 concerned itself with the execution of the decrees of the Council of Trent; and the last council held at Toledo, 1582–1583, was guided in detail by Philip II.
Toledo was famed for religious tolerance and had large communities of Jews and Muslims until they were expelled from Spain in 1492; the city therefore has important religious monuments like the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca, the Synagogue of El Transito, and the Mosque of Cristo de la Luz.
In the 13th century, Toledo was a major cultural center under the guidance of Alfonso X, called "El Sabio" ("the Wise") for his love of learning. The Toledo school of translators rendered available great academic and philosophical works in Arabic and Hebrew by translating them into Latin, bringing vast stores of knowledge to Europe for the first time.
The cathedral of Toledo (Catedral de Toledo) was modeled after the Bourges Cathedral though it also combines some characteristics of the Mudéjar style. It is remarkable for its incorporation of light and features the Baroque altar called El Transparente, several stories high, with fantastic figures of stucco, painting, bronze castings, and multiple colors of marble, a masterpiece of medieval mixed media by Narciso Tomé topped by the daily effect for just a few minutes of a shaft of sunlight striking it through a similarly ornamented hole in the roof. The effect gives the impression that the whole altar is rising to heaven. It is from the play of light that this feature of the cathedral derives its name.
Toledo was home to El Greco for the latter part of his life, and is the subject of some of his most famous paintings, including The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, exhibited in the Church of Santo Tomé.
Additionally, the city was renowned throughout the middle ages and into the present day as an important center for the production of swords and other bladed instruments.