|
|
TOLEDO - SPAIN
Toledo is a city located in central Spain, the
capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La
Mancha.
History
Toledo served as the capital city of Visigothic Spain, beginning with
Leovigild, and was the capital until the Moors conquered Iberia in the 8th
century. Under the Caliphate of Cordoba, Toledo enjoyed a golden age.
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 León-Castille 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.
Arts and culture
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 River Tagus, and contains many historical sights,
including the Alcázar, the cathedral (the primate church of Spain), and the
Zocodover, a central marketplace. 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 - 66 concerned itself with the
execution of the decrees of the Council of Trent; and the last council held
at Toledo, 1582 - 83, 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 Maria 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
Alphonso 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 into Latin,
bringing vast stores of knowledge to Europe for the first time.
The cathedral is remarkable for its incorporation of light and no part is
more remarkable than 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,
giving 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.
|
|
