Toledo: El Ciudad Medieval

¡Hola!

A couple days ago, our group left Madrid to see Toledo. This time I took notes one the tour so I could remember the facts better. The picture above is a panormanic shot of Toledo. It is situated in the mountains so we were taking this picture from a mountain road on the opposite side of the river. The river seen here is the longest river in all of Spain. The history of Toledo is long and militaristic. It begins with its construction by Rome in 200 BC:

Here is a picture of some of the Roman ruins of Toledo. Back in those times, the Roman name for the Iberian peninsula was Hispania.

After the fall of the Roman empire, the Visigoths took over Spain and ruled it until their loss to the Islamic Moors in the 11th century. Toledo was the capital of the Moorish caliphate in Spain. Here is a picture overlooking the city with myself, Kylie, and Sarah. Sarah is my roommate:).

When you first walk over the bridge and through the gate (Toledo is a walled fortress), you enter the Jewish sector of the city. It is marked with these little tiles in the stone. The tile below is interesting because they used the hebrew symbols to make the shape of the Iberian peninsula.

Though it is the Jewish sector, the Franciscan Monastery of San Juan de Los Reyes lies there. It was built in the 15th century by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to commemorate the Battle of Toro (battle of the bull) during the time when Isabella became queen of Castile. The war was to decide whether Isabella or another women to take the throne. Obviously, Isabella won. Her and King Ferdinand should have been buried here but they are not. They changed their mind and were buried in the Cathedral in Granada, (yay!) since the victory in Granada marked the end of the Reconquest. Below is a picture of the monastery. 

Another beautiful picture of the hallway that surrounds the open garden in the monastery.

Let me say that none of these pictures can compare to the actual sight of these catholic buildings. AT ALL. Take what you see here and times it by 100 and that is the awe factor. I was blown away. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my short life. Below is where many people from Toledo and Spain make reservations to marry. Anyone can I guess…however the minimum wait list is two years.

The balcony right above these words is where the choir of monks sing during mass. The common people sit in the pews below the choir balcony. The next picture (just beneath these words) shows the balcony pedestal upon which Queen Isabella or King Ferdinand would of sat during mass. There is one on each side of the room for each of them.

The beautiful jardín of the monastery.

The picture below is especially funny. This monastery took a very long time to build, and by the time it was finished, protestantism had taken off. It is believed that one of the protestant Nordic or German sculptors who worked on the limestone carved a monkey in a monk's robe who is using a chamber pot. I guess that was his way of sticking it to the man?

The synagogue below (still in the Jewish quarter) looks more like a mosque than a synagogue. Its life has three stages: it was first a synagogue, then a Christian church, and now a museum. In the 12th century, it was all the rage to have arabic features in new construction. Hence, its Islamic visage. It was a synagogue until 1492. At the same time that Columbus came to the Americas, all Jews were commanded to convert or leave Spain in exile and the Spanish Inquisition began. The purpose of the inquisition was not to find jews, it was to test los conversions (the newly converted). They didn't trust that the jews or Islamic peoples had really converted to Christianity. They were looking for any instance of the old traditions or cultures. It was so thorough that many of the new converts picked entirely new names, often choosing their occupation (names like Baker, Shoemaker, ect.). The only piece of Jewish architecture in the entire building is a single star of David on a pillar. All the others have 8 points according to the Islamic tradition of its architects.

Here is the 2nd largest cathedral in Spain. The largest is in Sevilla. The tower is 300 feet high. It is HUGE. When I was inside it, I was like…and I thought the monastery was unbelievable. When you enter, you just don't know what to say. It's breathtaking. It is the most important cathedral in spain since it is the seat of their Archbishop. Originally there was a mosque here, but it was destroyed during the Reconquest. The cathedral's construction began in 1266 and ended in 1493. 

Below is a zoomed in picture of this shrine that has a little mini Jesus in the center. The centerpiece is made of gold brought from the Americas (It's an important piece of the history of Spanish colonization). The rest is made with gold-plated silver that was melted down from jewelry that Queen Isabella gave for its construction.

The picture below is not the gold piece where the picture above is from. it was in an entirely separate room, just to clarify. 

Its difficult to tell what these are…but imagine really fancy carved wooden folding stadium seats and thats what they are at the bottom. They are for the Church Cardinals.

I zoomed in at the top of the picture because that is the interesting part to me. All around the walls of this room, the genealogy of Christ is carved. Below are the statues  (right to left) of Jesse, David, and Solomon.

This was painted by an ambidextrous Italian painter who was known for being super fast due to his unique ability.

When I zoom into the bottom area of the painting, you can see Toledo as it was during the 1600s when this was painted. 

Technically, I wasn't allowed to take pictures….but everyone else was. Below is a painting by The Greek. He is called this because he came from Greece and his name was so difficult for Spaniards to pronounce that he was just called El Greco.  The painting is from the 1500s and shows Jesus surrounded by Spanish conquistadors. Greco was trying to communicate that Jesus died for everyone in this painting.

The plaza in Toledo is below. Here, you can find the sword makers who hand-crafted the swords for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings films. Toledo is very famous for its authentic medieval sword making. Some guys in our group bought some…they are muy caro (very expensive).

A local recommended a place around the plaza for us to eat. The floors were plexiglass and you could see the Roman ruins beneath the restaurant. It was very cool!

Here is my view from my seat.

And at last Sarah and I came back to our adorable hotel room. First time ever seeing a bidet in real life! No we didn't use it.

I don't have any pictures yet…but we arrived in Granada yesterday. My host family is very sweet! However not having AC in a place where it is like 95 degrees is terrible. No one in my program could sleep since we were all soaked in sweat. The food is good though, and it is much cheaper than Madrid. I had to take my placement exam this morning to find out which level I will be in. It was 3 hours long. I find out in an hour or so what I got, so I'm pretty nervous!

¡Buenas tardes! (aquí)