Toledo at sunset from the Ronda del Valle viewpoint
Paraphrasing to Napoleon in one of his famous harangues, more than 2,000 years of history contemplate us when we take a look from the Ronda del Valle viewpoint Y Toledo takes over the horizon. Celtiberians, Romans, Visigoths, Muslims, Jews and Christians have shaped this city raised in layers for centuries by wise hands. To read between stones, it is only necessary a weekend and a good previous training to face its slopes, because yes, Toledo is a city to explore on foot . Entering it through one of the monumental bridges that cross the Block it is only the prelude to what the city keeps inside: palaces, temples and gates, like that of Cambrón or that of the Sun , which today await open for anyone who wants to cross them. Steps over the water that will plunge us into the Jewish quarter if we go through it Bridge San Martin or they will lead us to the Alcazar , Army Museum , if it is the Bridge and Gate of Alcántara the one we choose.
The forest of horseshoe arches of the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca
But the truth is that the natural entrance to the city is through the first, on an ascent towards the center of Toledo that will make us start the tour through the cobbled alleys of the jewish quarter , today colonized by a caste of rich people who have converted the old mansions overlooking the Tagus into authentic 21st century mansions. And how could it be otherwise, the synagogues are the protagonists at this point of the road. The Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca , the oldest in the city, is surprising for its Moorish style, with a small horseshoe arch forest , and for its eventful history that made it go from a synagogue to a chapel and from a chapel to a military barracks and later to an army warehouse. Not far away is the other great synagogue of the city, that of the Transit , headquarters of the Sephardic Museum and ordered to be built on two old houses by the Royal Treasurer of Pedro I of Castile , a certain Samuel ha-Levi , which gave the Jewish community its most important temple. With the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the synagogue was transformed into a Christian church, although the Hebrew inscriptions on its walls were respected, an important part of the building and in harmony with the treasures of the museum, donated by Jewish families spread all over the globe , which have their roots here, in Toledo.
The Catholic kings were not oblivious to the charm of this city embraced by the Block and arranged to be buried in it, in San Juan de los Reyes, but they reconquered Grenade and threw them over spending eternity in there. Even so, it is more than notable in the architecture of the Church, full of coats of arms, and above all in its Cloister , in an impeccable Elizabethan Gothic your royal destiny. If you wonder about the chains that hang on its facade, they are the ones that tied the Christian captives in Granada , sent here as thanks for his release.
Cloister of Elizabethan Gothic style of San Juan de los Reyes
Toledo is inextricably linked to El Greco , artist lover of the city, who drew his profile in several paintings, such as ‘View and plan of Toledo’ , which can be compared in the Museum of him, along with other milestones of the Cretan Mannerist. At the height of the views of the city that hang on the walls of the Metropolitan in New York and in the National Gallery in Washington. And we with one here next to us. But if one of his works had to represent the feeling of the city, that would be ‘The burial of the Lord of Orgaz’ , not count, because the title would be given to one of the descendants of the buried. A work kept in the church of Santo Tome that does not disappoint despite its more than famous composition and that awakens a healthy greed to know more about the city.
Thus, the most representative point to breathe the same air, or similar, that passed through the lungs of El Greco and the contemporaries of his contemporaries is the Cathedral and its surroundings. With the gate of the lions and the gate of forgiveness as its most monumental entrances and the plain gate as a tourist passage to its interior, where not to carefully admire its Chorus , carved, among others by Berruguete, or the Transparent , Narciso Tomé's Baroque delirium, plain and simple, would be for fools. The treasure and the Sacristy , with 'The Plunder' and an apostolate of El Greco under a painted ceiling luke jordan , make the cathedral an almost improvised art gallery, also home to works by Goya, Rubens, Zurbarán or Velázquez.
Entrance of the Hotel Cigarral El Bosque, with exceptional views
The views of the Jesuit Church They are perfect for lovers of vertigo. exceptional lookout on the roofs and towers of the city, reaching them implies climbing the 'flying' stairs from one of its towers to later, after the 360-degree views of Toledo, descend through the other, easily and respectfully saved about 20 meters high.
We complete this tour with a visit to a mosque, which closes the triangle of the three cultures. Although this circuit can only be modified or extended, since Toledo has more than a hundred sites of monumental interest capable of filling not one, but 10 getaways. In the Mosque of Christ of Light , another Christian name for another infidel temple, the first Christian mass took place after the reconquest and in it, says the legend, a man was found behind a false wall. Christ from the Visigoth period next to a lamp that had been lit for three centuries, hence the name: Christ of the light. The interior of him, to the purest caliphal style , has nine cupolas on horseshoe arches with Visigothic capitals, pure architectural fusion and one of the most beautiful examples of Arabic art in the peninsula.
Pottery with a medieval signature by A. Serrano Fábrica
Where to buy Plaza de Zocodover, literally from Arabic ‘souk of the beasts’ , was the largest market in the city, and today the commercial streets of Toledo start from it, with the trade street as the main shopping artery. Among swords and damascenes in the surroundings of the Plaza del Conde, souvenirs par excellence of the city, it is worth taking a look at the earthenware pieces of A. Serrano Factory , specializing in reproductions of designs from Toledo and Talavera from the 15th to the 18th centuries or the treasures of Linares Antiques . And to get hold of the best genre in the city as far as Toledo's sweet par excellence is concerned, marzipan, near the Cathedral you will find The marzipan house (Cuesta de los Pajaritos, 8) , we guarantee that it will be difficult for you to get out of there without less than a kilo of this delicacy under your arm.
Where to eat Fame goes to the very famous Adolfo, a classic among the classics of Toledo , and Locum , in a small street behind the cathedral of the same name, where they have a tasting menu so round that there are not a few who make a pilgrimage here to try it or repeat the experience. And if what you are looking for is informality made cap , the pin street , attentive to its famous Virgen de los alfileritos, has the best circuit for it, with La Abadía as the center of operations.
Where to sleep The cooing of the cicadas made the people of Toledo baptize the land that stands in front of the city on the other side of the Tagus as The Cigars , today the cradle of 'hotelazos' with views, among which the Hotel Cigarral El Bosque stands out with special charm, a hybrid building whose newly minted part seems to be taken from a project by money . Not far away, since it also enjoys privileged views of the city, is the Parador Nacional, Count of Orgas , along the lines of the hotel palaces scattered around the country, and which has been renovated with all kinds of success. Something more central is the Hotel Fontecruz Eugenia de Montijo , which occupies an old Renaissance palace that belonged to Eugenie de Montijo , the Spanish that fell in love with Napoleon III and she was Empress of France.
The Puerta del Sol without the light of the star king