Jun 01, 2019
The Toledo Cathedral
Today was our day to visit this famous Cathedral, the greatest Gothic structure in Europe. We have been observing it day and night since we arrived. It is an amazing structure. yet it is showing decay in some areas on the exterior. There is so much history to this famous Catedral ( Spanish spelling ) in which the first stone was laid in 1226. It was erected on the site of a previous mosque. It is so large that it can seat 30,000. It cost us 9 Euro each to enter which included an audio guide. We ended up being there for over 2.5 hours. It is a fascinating place, mostly due to the history of it all. A small inner core of the church was cordoned off today as they were preparing for a major celebratory mass this evening re the Castile – La Mancha day. That explains the extra people and children wandering the town.
There is so much history that we took in that I can’t possibly remember it all to share with you. If you are seriously interested I suggest that you start with Wikipedia. It is a condensed version but well written and helps you to understand the immense history behind this amazing Cathedral.
Parts of the church were shut off the public because of a special, so we were not able to get up close to everything. Certainly lots of gold inside.
Virgin del Tesoro from the XIII century, covered in silver. It is said to be older than the Cathedral itself.
The Disrobing of Christ painting begun in the summer of 1577 by El Greco and completed in the spring of 1579 for the High Altar of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo, where it still hangs.
This is said to be the actual stone that the Virgin Mary’s foot touched when she descended from heaven for a short period of time. People are allowed to touch it and so I did. I have since been unable to verify this information online. Mind you I did not spend a great deal of time looking. There was another story on the audio tape that mentioned that The Virgin Mary herself was born because of an immaculate conception between her parents. Again I could not verify this.
This amazing work of art is made of solid gold. It originally belonged to Queen Isabella who reigned as Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504. The monstrance was bought by Toledo in 1505.
So much history in just this one piece. First of all this monstrance is literally brilliant, not only in looks but in its creation. But to think that the gold I was looking at came from the New World and was brought back to Spain by Christopher Columbus was beyond amazing and here I was looking at it here in Toledo.
Our brains were tired and we needed energy so we walked up and down until we found a wee reatuarut with a view of the Catedral. Perfect. We settled on the menu del dia which in this case was was an excellent deal @ 9.5 Euro each. We both had a glass of wine, bread and here in my case the avocado salad. I certainly never expected this wonderful creation of diced tomatoes, spring onion which turned out to be red onion, avocado and tuna loins covered with sesame seeds.
Colin had falafel served with a honey mustard dressing. We both were more than impressed with our meal.
The menu del dia also includes a postre/dessert. I had the carrot cake while Colin chose the cheesecake which came with a fresh raspberry topping. Definitely the best dessert ever.
I was too full for dinner and Colin ended up getting a takeout vegetarian dish from the restaurant across the road. It was then time to pack as we moved to yet another destination this morning. More on that next post.
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Oh my, that golden statue/montrous? To b made from gold brought from New World by C Columbus… Boggles the mind
I felt the same way, filled with awe to stand at bridge in Concord where shot heard round the world was fired. The North Church in Boston, to walk where they walked, the same streets and roads, it just sort of fills you ….
And that is nothing compared yo what u saw!!!
What an incredible structure! I am truly amazed at the architecture from back then and to think it was started in the 1200’s!
Thanks for those photos. They bring back memories of a CBS Sunday Morning Show maybe 30 years ago, where they showed a mural (I thought it was a mural, it may have that painting you saw) by El Grego, where they pointed a small unnoticable figure in the foreground was his self portrait. I guess he often included his image in his works. In the background they were playing Faure’s Requiem, which was beautiful, and my favorite choral work to this day. I think Charles Kuralt was the reporter, but it might have been Charles Osgood. Thanks again.