Holy Toledo.

The Spanish say that until you've seen Toledo, you haven't really seen Spain. The country's former capital, now a World Heritage site, is situated on a hill nearly encircled by a horseshoe bend in the Tagus river. It's a natural defensive position that has served the city well, except when it hasn't.

Toledo is known as the "City of the Three Cultures." This refers to the city's golden age under both Islamic and Christian rule when there was a unique atmosphere of tolerance between Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The city was Christian under the Visigoths from about 300 CE until the Muslim conquest in the 711. There was a large Jewish population, dating from pre-Roman times, as well. The Muslims allowed Jews and Christians to continue practicing their own faiths, and after the Reconquest in 1085, the Christian kings continued this policy of coexistence, allowing Muslim and Jewish scholarship to flourish, and making Toledo on of the primary intellectual centers of the age.

 

It wasn't until the end of the 1300s that the Catholic Church began a campaign of persecution against Jews and Muslims, culminating in their expulsion from Spain in 1492.

 

Toledo has a tradition of sword-making and steel-working dating from about 500 BCE. The city was a primary supplier of bladed weapons to Hannibal in the Punic Wars. The Romans were impressed, and Toledo became the standard source of weaponry for the Roman legions.

I took the fast train from Madrid to Toledo. 

It's about a 30-minute trip from Madrid's huge Atocha train station.

The station is so big it even houses a botanical garden.

The train stops in the valley below the city. From there I took the scenic bus up the hill to town.

On the way into the city, you pass the former estates of Toledo's wealthy merchants. Most of these beautiful residences have been converted to high-end b&bs.

Crossing the San Martin bridge takes you into Toledo itself.

The city has retained its medieval charm, with narrow winding streets flanked by buildings tall enough to block any possibility of navigating by landmarks. Even with a map and GPS, I got lost several times trying to find my way through this lovely maze. But I look on that as a plus.

Toledo is known as one of Spain's most religious cities. The town is filled with churches, and the hill at the center of the city is crowned by the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, considered by many the finest example of high-Gothic architecture in Spain

During La Convivencia, the time of peaceful coexistence between Jews, Christians, and Muslim, Toledo continued as a major cultural center. Its Arab libraries, containing priceless copies of Greek texts lost to Christian Europe, were not destroyed. In fact, a translation center was established to preserve and disseminate those texts by translating them into Castilian and Latin.

Some of Toledo's historic Jewish quarter has been restored. At one time the city had ten synagogues. All but two were destroyed during the bloody pogroms of the 14th and 15th centuries. The two that survived were converted into churches.

 

One of these, Santa María La Blanca, was built as a synagogue in the 12th Century by Moorish craftsmen, who were at the time the only artisans in Toledo. 

The resulting style is called mudéjar: a unique amalgam of Moorish, Christian, and Jewish architecture. The building, which was used as a stable by French troops during Napoleon's occupation of Spain, has been partly restored. It contains 28 white octagonal pillars with intricately carved capitals supporting a succession of horseshoe-shaped arches.

Only one Star of David remains in the intricate designs that decorate the walls. 

In Toledo, and throughout Spain, this Hebrew glyph is used to mark the site of a synagogue that has been destroyed. It reads: "Spain," and is shaped like a map of the country.

The Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes was built as a royal mausoleum for Isabel of Castile. Instead it became a Franciscan monastery. This was the dining room.

And of course no monastic dining room would be complete without a reminder that feeding the flesh is ultimately futile.

The monastery itself is a gorgeous example of late-period Spanish Gothic.

The gardens are particularly lovely.

Napoleon's troops destroyed much of the building during the Peninsular Wars, but it has been beautifully restored. 

The intricate designs that frame the arches enclosing the central garden include detailed depictions of various creatures, both imaginary and real.

I especially liked this satirical portrait of a monkey dressed as a monk reading the Bible while seated on a chamber pot.

Isabel was one of Spain's most powerful queens, a chubby blond of Austrian descent.

On the way to catch my train back to Madrid, I ran across this tribute to one of my favorite Miyazaki films. Note that the Os are soot sprites.

 

P.