Holy Toledo!

Wow! What a city! Its about an hour away from Madrid and it has sooo much culture. It is absolutely gorgeous and everything is in extremely good shape. The city is built like a fortress like walls around because it was invaded for quite some time. First by the romans, then the visigoths, then muslims, and finally christians more recently. So it has a wide variety of styles, so much pretty architecture, and art. At first, we took a bus tour to go around the city. At the top of a side mountain ,we could look down on the whole city. It was amazing! There is the alcazar, the enormous cathedral of Toledo along 80 other churches, and many houses. There is also a river that just started running again that goes around the city and another bigger one that uses a water mill. It serves as a moat. We descended back down a little bit and started on foot. We went up some outside escalators that had just been put in because it was always so steep to get into the city because it was so protected. Walking around Toledo was beautiful- its all little cobblestone streets with tons of artisan shops all around. There are so many stores with swords because Toledo has the best steel- this is considered one of the most popular souvenirs from spain. There was one store that produces decorative plates from tiny gold threads that are so detailed- there was one depicting the view of the city we had previously seen and it was worth 80,000 euros!!! Whoa!

The first thing we visited was The Cathedral of Toledo- this must be the most extravagant and beautiful thing ive ever seen. This only would be worth the trip to Toledo. it actually used to be a mosque but when the christians came back, they converted it into a cathedral. Its ouside is very pretty and detailed too but when you see the inside, it literally takes your breath away. It took 270 years to build! So it has all the different architectural styles from over the years- renaissance, roman, gothic, etc. You wonder what kind of genius artists and architects were able to construct this. As like in any cathedral, there are huge stain glass windows, high ceilings, sculpture, paintings, little side chapels with churches, but this cathedral goes way beyond anything ive ever seen!

We started our guided tour at the altar. In a cathedral, by tradition, the altar always has be facing east or the rising sun, just like a mosque has to always face Jerusalem. It is always the first thing ever built and the most important. The last piece always put in a catherdral is the keystone- this completes the entire building and is considered finished at this point. This cathedral had a huge altar with an enormous piece of art in the background- it was extremely detailed and all carved from wood and then painted in bright colors. It was the story of jesus, starting from the bottom and going all the way to the top where the cross were. Since so many people were illiterate in those times, the church knew they had to picture the story of the bible, which is why there are always so many sculptures and colored windows and paintings to tell the people the story. There were also tombs in the altar part. The ceilings are so high and the altar is so impressive.

Across from the altar was a place for the bishop to sit in a big compartment almost as big as the altar. All around there were seats from wood that you could fold the bottom back up, all ornately decorated with the story of the war. All around that above the chairs, were sculptures of all of the important people in the bible, plus others. Everything always so detailed and telling a story.

Then, we walked around the corner to behind the altar. WOW!! Absolutely magnificent. Where the sun would rise and come in from the east, at the top of the cathedral, there is a huge hole for the sun to shine through. This part is decorated with lots of people that stick out from the walls and look like they are sitting on the edge and looking in at us. They are colored and sitting in a circle and in the top there are lots of baby angels. So gorgeous because they all stick out like real people from the stone. Opposite that, where the sun actually shines, is a huge artistic piece made from silver that depicts jesus and virgin mary among many others. In the middle is a big sun made in gold that shines throughout the piece. Really beautiful.

All along the sides of the cathedral are little chapels that were always kept private and are now used as tombs for the most important people. The entire underneath of the cathedral had been used as a burial ground earlier but the tombs were dug out because it had become weak and dangerous for the people to walk on. However, they left all the cardinals in the ground and from above you can tell where they are because above each of their tombs, there hang a red hat with tassels. The theory is that as long until the hat falls to the ground, the cardinal is still waiting to go to heaven- not one hat has fallen yet. Hehe. Oh, religion…

Another part of the cathedral has been devoted to the virgin mary. In there, they showcase a piece of stone, saying that mary stepped on it and asking the public to touch it and ask for her help. It used to be flat but is curved in with so many holes now because millions of fingers have touched it.

In another part, they converted a small chapel into a little museum. All the pieces are there from donations. There are gold crosses from the cardinals and little paintings. But the most impressive thing is a gold structure. The queen had been given a beautiful golden piece that depicted so man little characters and a circle in the middle that was for the holy to sit in. this had 17 kilos of gold, not including some parts in silver and all the beautiful gems and stones. When the queen died, she asked that all her belongings be auctioned off and the money given to the poor. The bishop bought this piece and asked an artist to build an altar on which to place the first golden piece. It is now made up of over 200 kilos of gold!!! No big deal… its so beautiful with so so so much detail- every little person and animal is so tiny and there are millions of them all making up the design. Wowww.

In one side of the building, there is a room with lots of paintings, many by El Greco. This is not his actual name but because his name was long and hard to pronounce, and he was originally from Greece, the spaniards called him El Greco. Toledo became his second home because he completed the majority of his art here. All this art was also telling a story. On the ceiling was a hugeeeee frescoe covering the entire ceiling. It was beautiful and definitely looked like real people were sitting up there. This was painted by ‘speedy lucca’ who painted with both hands!

In some of the paintings, you could see that they had been cut out. This had happened during the war when some of the paintings had been cut up and really destroyed. Now, many of them have been restored but you can still tell how they were stolen.

Next, we went to go see El Greco’s masterpiece which is located in the San Tome Iglesia. The painting is called ‘ the burial of count orgaz’ and its pretty huge. It was really great. Its actually placed right over the actual tomb of count orgaz. The painting depicts a dead orgaz in armor about to be gently put down into the tomb right below by 2 priests in bright beautiful clothes. They are surrounded by several monks, along with 2 men leading the ceremony and watching are lots of men that represent the nobles of the time attending the burial. In the entire picture, there are only 2 people looking at you; everyone else is looking somewhere else in the painting. These two people are believed to be el Greco himself and his son at 8 years old. The son is in the bottom left corner pointing to the burial as in inviting us to join. In his pocket, there is a hankerchief with el greco’s signature (he always signed discreetly like this) and a year. However, this was not the year of the time of the painting and the same year his son was born, but 8 years from then, which is why the son is depicted at 8 years old in the future. His father is believed to be one of the noble men- they look very alike and again, are the only people looking at the audience so it means something.

The painting is divided into two halfs- earth and heaven. Jesus is right at the top, virgin mary beneath him to the side, with another man below him on the other side. Right in the middle, there is a huge angel carrying a cloud-type thing in the shape of a baby- this represents orgaz’s soul- into a cloud canal. These people are guiding his rebirth into heaven. There is st peter on the side holding the keys to heaven. Really cool painting. I never was one to truly appreciate religious paintings but when all the details are explained clearly, it really makes a good story and you also have twists with the painters sometimes being in there, and with the son too, that’s really cool.

Next, we went to the santa maria blanca synagogue that was later transformed into a church. From the outside, it looks really plain because it was considered disrespectful to show fanciness from the outside, which is why many buildings look simple from the outside but they are always extremely rich inside. The style inside was Moorish still with the big arcs and repetitive designs. The original design was kept even after being transformed. The christians built their altar on the east wall as with all churches but this east wall was also considered sacred for the moors. Now, the Christian altar has been removed so that they can start to discover the sacred wall that was left behind it. Some frescoes still remain on the walls on the inside of the synagogue.

This completed our tour to Toledo. Really marvelous, wow! Such a rich city! We grabbed a slice of pizza and now are on our way to sevilla! We have been riding and we already took a stop where I ate a Spanish tortilla (eggs, potatoes, spices, really yummy). There have been olive trees on both sides of our highway for at least 10 miles. Man, these people must love olives. Cant wait to get to sevilla- we meet our families tonight!