Toledo

A Brief History Toledo was founded in 540 BC by Jewish colonists and was originally named Toledoch. Toledo was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis and called “Toletum” by the Romans in 192 BC. 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 is famous for… …its production of steel, swords, and knives! Spanish Naval Officer’s Sabre, 1857 Pattern

The Church of Santo Tome Santo Tome church, bell tower Tower of Santo Tome

Santo Tome Art The Burial of Count Orgaz Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo, Count of Orgaz, was a Toledan nobleman who had lived in the fourteenth century and acquired a renown as a donor to religious institutions. Before he died, he had willed certain rents from the village of Orgaz to the church of Santo Tomé, where he had elected to be buried. In 1586 the parish priest initiated a project to refurbish the count's burial chapel, and commissioned El Greco to paint what has to be considered as his masterpiece.

Gothic Cathedral, Toledo

This cathedral has five aisles, and large transepts (the transverse part of a cruciform church, crossing the nave at right angles), with the main chapel enclosed by a double ambulatory (an aisle surrounding the end of the choir or chancel of a church).

Medieval Synagogue El Transito

Inside the Synagogue