Spain’s former capital is worth more than a day trip

3 months ago 25

Seven wonders within Toledo, Spain

Spain’s former capital has a dramatic setting, compelling history and outstanding art and architecture. See it on a day trip from Madrid like most visitors and you might regret it.

Be bedazzled in Toledo Cathedral

Toledo Cathedral seems to belong to a world that has passed.

Toledo’s vast, menacing yet sensual cathedral encapsulates 700 years of art and religion in all its violent glory, and exhilarates and intimidates in equal measure. The high altar cascades with Americas gold, statues are gaudy, royal tombs severe and choir stalls a riot of woodcarving. The sacristy is hung with masterpieces by Titian, Rubens, Goya, El Greco, Velazquez and Caravaggio. The cathedral seems to belong to a world that has passed: barbaric, splendid, mystical and magnificent. See catedralprimada.es

Relax in the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes

Cloister at the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes.

Fortress-grim on the outside, this working Franciscan monastery has the loveliest of interior courtyards, barnacled with gargoyles and statues and exuding a magical peace. Birds twitter in the trees at its centre. The cloister that runs around it is dappled with light from soaring, stone-carved medieval windows, and the level above has sturdy Renaissance additions. The architecture is regal in quality because 15th-century joint monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella intended to be entombed here. See sanjuandelosreyes.org

Say a little prayer in El Transito Synagogue

Intricate wooden ceiling patterns at El Transito Synagogue.

Walk five minutes south of the monastery, past one former synagogue – Santa Maria La Blanca, reputed to be Europe’s oldest – and you arrive at another. The magnificent carved wooden ceilings and plasterwork walls of El Transito blend Mozarabic decorative influences. Constructed in 1355, El Transito houses the Sephardic Museum, which accounts for Toledo’s long Jewish history. You’ll find good information sheets in English and the museum has some especially beautiful ceramics. Pause afterwards in the synagogue’s small memorial garden. See spain.info

Take in the art at Hospital de Tavera

Don’t like monuments and art? Better skip Toledo, which has them in spades. This Renaissance palace, built by a cardinal for the needy, is a whopper. The architectural highlight is the symmetrical double courtyards, while a wealth of paintings includes masterpieces by El Greco, Tintoretto and Zurbaran. Cardinal Tavera’s marble tomb is a sculptural work of art too, with no sign of humility other than a little memento mori skull tucked under his pillow. See fundacionmedinaceli.org

Admire El Greco paintings

Toledo is associated with El Greco, the 16th-century painter whose works seem astonishingly modern. You can see quite a few of his paintings in Toledo, and all are odd and electrifying. The church of Santo Domingo Monastery where the painter is buried has top examples including the altarpiece Assumption of the Virgin showing Mary springing from her tomb like a jack-in-the-box. El Greco Museum (in a house where El Greco never lived, despite claims) has several superb later works. See museodelgreco.sacatuentrada.es

Fill up at Confiteria Santo Tome

Santo Tome shop in Zocodover Square, Toledo.

If El Greco’s elongated, hollow-cheeked saints make you peckish, take a break from gloomy painted art and indulge in happy edible art instead. Toledo nuns are said to have invented marzipan – which is disputed – but Toledo has certainly produced it for centuries. Santo Tome, in business since 1856, is Spain’s best-known marzipan maker. You can devour biscuits, pastries, cakes, sweets and marzipan fruit filled with lip-licking goo. Like El Greco’s saints, you’ll soon be in heaven. See mazapan.com

Take a hike to Mirador del Valle

There are sweeping views of Toledo and the Tagus River from Mirador del Valle.

In this old town of closed-in alleys, you’ll want to get beyond the walls to admire Toledo’s fabulous setting above the Tagus River, dominated by the whopping Alcazar, or fortress. This viewpoint is a 40-minute walk from Puente Nuevo bridge just below the fortress, but outlooks are fabulous all the way. Sunset and twilight are the most atmospheric. The lazy option is a taxi to nearby Parador de Toledo for a cocktail on the terrace. See paradores.es

The writer travelled at his own expense.

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