Toledo
Spiritual centre of Spain
Our audio tour of this hilltop city explores the secrets of Toledo - its Arab and Jewish past, its fine medieval heritage, and the art of one of Spain's greatest painters, El Greco, who made his home here.
Toledo still contains two fine synagogues - Santa Maria del Transito and Santa Maria la Blanca - a rare remnant of Hispanic Jewish culture. We'll meet Samuel ha-Levi, treasurer of Pedro the Cruel of Castile, and the richest man in Spain, who built the Transito as his private synagogue, and examine the multiple meanings of his patronage here.
The Cristo de la Luz, renamed and extended as a church after the Christians took the city from the Arabs in 1085, is a perfect tiny mosque. Our tour shows how the architect makes references to the Great Mosque in Cordoba - though this mosque is tiny, it claims kinship with the single greatest work of Islamic culture in Spain.
And the third faith of the city is represented not just by a number of lovely mudejar churches, but by one of the finest cathedrals in Spain - intriguingly, a work almost totally in a pure French Gothic style. Toledo Cathedral is a treasure house of art, from the middle ages to
the Baroque.
We focus on the artistic heritage of the city, particularly the work of El Greco - a maverick talent who took Italian realism and twisted it into a spiritual vision that was utterly individual. But we'll also walk some of the back streets to get a feeling for the medieval fabric of the city.
Price: £5
Other things to do in Toledo
- If you enjoyed the Cristo de la Luz you can see another early mosque, the Mezquita de la Tornerias, nearer the centre of the city at Calle de la Hermandad.
- Visit San Juan de los Reyes, an Isabelline Gothic monastery with a beautiful cloister. On the exterior wall you can still see the chains of Christian slaves who were rescued from the Saracens.
- The Hospital de Santa Cruz, in an old convent, has a splendid Plateresque cloister. There are some wonderful El Greco paintings - but this is also a place to get a feeling for the furniture and interior decoration of the time. There's also a display of Toledo swords and armour.
- The Hospital de Tavera, outside the Puerta Bisagra, is housed in a fine Renaissance building. Here you can see yet more El Grecos, as well as paintings by Zurbaran and Ribera, and a restored Renaissance pharmacy.
- The Cristo de la Vega is a fine mudejar church in the meadows by the Tagus.
- Don't forget the Railway station - a neo-mudejar extravaganza which is one of the most over-the-top buildings in the city!