Toledo, Spain
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Location of Toledo in Spain |
Toledo is a city and
municipality located in central
Spain, about 70
kilometers south of
Madrid. It is the capital of the province of
Toledo and of the
autonomous community of
Castile-La Mancha.
As of 2005, Toledo, Spain has a population of 75,578.
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A shot of Toledo showing the Alcázar and a bridge over the Tagus |
As encountered by the Romans, the city – called
Toletum (,
Ptol. ii. 6. § 57) – was the capital of the
Carpetani. It was incorporated into the Roman province of
Hispania Tarraconensis. It sat at a strategic location along the
Tagus River and on the road from Emerita (modern
Mérida) to Caesaraugusta (modern
Zaragoza), and connected also by another road with
Laminium. (
Itin. Ant. pp. 438, 446.) It was a very strong town, though only of moderate size, and famed for its manufacture of arms and steel-ware. (
Liv. xxxv. 7, 22, xxxix, 30; Grat.
Cyneg. 341;
cf. Miñano,
Diccion. viii, p. 453.) According to an old Spanish tradition, Toledo was founded in the year
540 BCE by
Jewish colonists, who named it
Toledoch, that is, mother of people, whence one might perhaps infer a
Phoenician settlement. (
Cf. Miñano,
l. c.; Puente,
Travels, i. p. 27.)
Toledo later served as the capital city of
Visigothic Spain, beginning with
Liuvigild (Leovigild), and was the capital until the
Moors conquered Iberia in the 8th century. Under the
Caliphate of Cordoba, Toledo enjoyed a golden age. This extensive period is known as
La Convivencia, i.e. the Co-existence of
Jews,
Christians, and
Muslims. Under Arab rule, Toledo was called
Tulaytulah (
Arabic طليطلة, academically
transliterated ).
On
May 25,
1085 Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo and established direct personal control over the Moorish city from which he had been exacting tribute. This was the first concrete step taken by the combined kingdom of Leon-Castile in the
Reconquista by Christian forces.
Toledo was famed for its production of
steel and especially of
swords and the city is still a center for the manufacture of knives and other steel implements.When
Philip II moved the royal court from Toledo to
Madrid in
1561, the old city went into a slow decline from which it never recovered.
Toledo's
Alcázar became renowned in the
19th and
20th centuries as a
military academy. At the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War in
1936 its garrison was famously
besieged by
Republican forces.
In
1986 the
UNESCO declared Toledo a
World Heritage Site.
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.
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The Burial of Count Orgaz was painted by El Greco in 1586. Based on a 14th-century legend. Toledo, Spain. |
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.
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El Greco's house in Toledo |
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 Tomei 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.
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