Crown of Castile - this is how Lope de Vega named the city
"We have arrived, here is Toledo! " exclaimed Henri de Lagardè re (the unforgettable Jean Marais). "It's high time, " muttered Pascual (no less popular Bourvil) in response.
The heroes of Unebell's film "The Hunchback" hid with a Spanish gunsmith for many years. Toledo blades became famous thanks to the masters from Damascus, who settled here under the Moors. Decent knives (their manufacture has now been moved to Ciudad Real) are still being made. The feeling is as if the knife cuts itself, without effort. A genuine knife will certainly be in a box with a barcode, all the details of the manufacturer and even an indication of the main alloying additives in steel, which indicates its applicability for food products, but beware of fakes! A Russian-speaking person in a shop near the Cathedral offered me a knife with the inscription “Toledo” on the blade, only before leaving I saw exactly the same on the tray in the underpass - there was no inscription, it cost three times cheaper, but this is exactly the same Chinese product! A real Toledo knife costs twice as much as a Swiss counterpart.
The name El Greco is associated with Toledo, his works can be seen in the Cathedral, there is his "House-Museum", although the original house nearby, where the painter lived, has not been preserved. And the house on Socodover Square, where Cervantes created his images, still exists today. Above the Gothic bridge of San Martin rises the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, where it was supposed to create a royal tomb, but later plans changed.
Tourists are certainly taken to the other side to view the panorama of the city, which has changed little since the Middle Ages. The opposite view from the north has undergone much more serious changes. Under Franco, any construction here was prohibited, after the death of the dictator, already in this century, this ban was canceled. I prefer the view of Toledo from the castle of San Servando.
This panorama is dominated by the Alcazar. The current Alcazar is a post-war reconstruction, the original building was almost completely destroyed during the Civil War, when officers with their families and cadets of a military school, led by one of the ardent supporters of the rebels, Colonel Moscardo, took refuge in the medieval fortress. The Republicans never succeeded in capturing the fortress. And under it is the Alcantara bridge, built by the Romans, of course, restored.
Another dominant feature is the Cathedral, it was built for almost 300 years, architectural styles changed, so the giant building acquired a unique look. I heard from one guide that the cathedral was rebuilt from a Moorish mosque - this is a lie. There really was a small mosque on this site (it was destroyed in 1226, freeing the site for the cathedral), but it is impossible to rebuild a modest building into one of the largest Christian churches! At the same time, that old mosque on this site was created by rebuilding an even more ancient Visigothic church. Toledo has always been a stronghold of Catholicism, it is now the residence of the First Cardinal - the head of the Spanish Catholic Church. According to legend, the first bishop of Toledo was elevated to the rank by the apostle Peter himself.
The rock on which the city stands is embraced by an arc of the grey-green waters of the Tahoe. On the shore, where the rift is noticeable, there was probably Galiana, described by Feuchtwanger in the Spanish Ballad. Do not be too lazy to re-read the novel before the trip.
