Holy Toledo!

Each excursion unfolds uniquely, even if the description in the brochure reads the same.

For our second bus stop of our all-day tour from Madrid, our guide focused like a laser on the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, which she said was second only to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome regarding the value of the accumulated treasures.

Based on the many grandiose Cathedrals around the world we have seen, I'm not sure how she can be so definite about that, but it is impressive.

In its art gallery, there are several works by El Greco, an artist born on the Greek Isle of Crete.  His greatest works came after relocating to Toledo after developing his talents in Venice and Rome.  Personally, I have never been a fan of his paintings, which seem dark, but they're certainly valuable.  There are also works by Italian artist Raphael and Spanish artist Velázquez

The greatest treasure, one deemed to be priceless according to our guide, is La Gran Osternsoria de Toledo, also called the Monstrance of Arfe, after the silversmith who created it.  Enrique de Arfe sounds like a Spanish name, but Enrique was actually born near Cologne with the Germanic name of Heinrich von Harff.

As my dad used to say, "I never got a job from a poor man," and with the great wealth that flowed into the Spanish treasury from the Americas following Queen Isabella's gamble on Columbus, Spain's rulers and of course the Catholic Church itself became great patrons of the arts, attracting the finest artists from all around Europe.

The Monstrance of Arfe looks something like a giant victory trophy, with jewels inset amid the lavish silver and gold design, but it is a religious ceremonial piece designed to hold the "Consecrated Host," the bread that represents the body of Jesus as He directed at the Last Supper.

"Is it bigger than the average bread box?"

Yes it is.

The Great Monstrance stands over ten feet tall, and it is quite dazzling.

I have to wonder what Jesus would think of this, compared to the plate on which he ate his last meal or even the much sought-after Holy Grail, which was probably a humble chalice suitable for a carpenter.

During the annual Feast of Corpus Christi of Toledo, The Monstrance de Arfe is carried through the street.


Catedral de Toledo itself is also magnificent, considered to be the finest example of Spain's Gothic Cathedrals.

It is said to have been built on the site of a Catholic church that stood there about 1,400 years ago, during the age of Saint Eugene of Toledo, but Toledo was not always ruled  by Catholics.

Like almost all of Iberia, Toledo was under Moorish rule for hundreds of years, beginning about the year 711.


In the particular case of Toledo, King Alfonso VI reclaimed Toledo on May 25, 1085, with little bloodshed by promising to maintain the libraries, schools and religious traditions of the Muslims, allowing them to continue living about the same as before the change in government.

In 1087, however, Alfonso went out of town to handle the affairs of state, and while he was gone, his wife, Queen Constance, and their archbishop took it upon themselves to seize the mosque by force, "cast out the flithiness of the law of Mohammed" and hang a bell in the minaret of the former mosque.

This, of course, triggered a Muslim riot that could have become a revolution.



Alfonso may have been angry about returning to the chaos caused by his wife's actions behind his back, but in 1088, Pope Urban II named the former mosque as the Primate Cathedral of the Kingdom.

In 1226, construction began on a new Cathedral on the same spot.  It was essentially completed in 1493, the year after Columbus sailed the ocean blue to the West Indies, but adornment continued over centuries to complete the Cathedral as we saw it on our visit.

Before our extensive tour of the Cathedral, we were released to find lunch on our own in town.

Our guide recommended Carcamusa, a pork and vegetable stew that's a specialty of Toledo.

The sit-down sidewalk cafes seemed so busy that we worried we might not make it back to our appointed meeting time in an hour, because in Spain, meals are not rushed, but we found a little restaurant with extra tables and a reasonably priced menu where I could have that as my main course Caramusa with another Spanish specialty, Paella, as the starter course.

Let's just say that when the food came, I understood why we had no trouble getting a table.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't delicious either.  Plus, it was indoors, whereas we probably should have enjoyed an outdoor table on such a beautiful day.

At least by skipping dessert we finished with time to spare.

Toledo is perched atop a hill, from which we enjoyed beautiful views of the surrounding area.  In these modern times, we actually took elevators from where we parked to the city.

Unknown to us at the time, it turns out that beneath some parts of the city are ruins of the ancient Roman city of Toletum, including Roman baths.  In a way, that's the perfect metaphor of how one civilization builds upon prior civilizations.

The Romans had not been in control of the city when the Moors conquered it in 711.

In 378, Germanic tribes collectively known as Goths shocked the Roman Empire by routing their famed army at the Battle of Adrianople, killing Eastern Roman Emperor Vallens who had personally commanded his forces.  The Romans derided Goths as "Barbarians," making fun of their speech which instead of being in a civilized language seemed to be nothing more than repeating "bar-bar-bar."

The Barbarians continued to harrass Greece and Italy, eventually sacking the city of Rome itself in 410, though by that point the Western Roman Empire had moved its capital to Ravenna.

Many of these Barbarians moved west and became known as Visigoths (as opposed to the eastern branch called Ostrogoths).

The Visigoths settled first in Gaul (France) and upon losing that land to the Franks, subsequently migrated beyond the Pyrenees to modern day Spain and Portugal, where they ruled their adopted land for a couple of centuries from their capital in Toledo.

While they were not Catholic initially, they had adopted a different form of Christianity called Arianism.  Among other beliefs, Arians did not believe in the Trinity as accepted by the Nicene Council in those early centuries of Christianitya.  Rather they reckoned that if Jesus had been created by God the Father, He certainly had a different beginning point, about 2000 years ago for us.  Therefore while He may have been one with God from that point forward, Jesus by Arian reasoning was not in existence from the Beginning of time like God the Father.

The Romans had only recently been lawfully allowed to be Catholics themselves, with Christianity de-criminalized in 313 under Emperor Constantine.

The ruling Visigoths hosted several religious Councils of Toledo, where church leaders determined doctrine and administration, so even back then, the city could have been called Holy Toledo.

Over time, the Visigothic leaders adopted the Catholicism of the people they ruled.  In 589, King Reccared dramatically converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity at the Third Council of Toledo.

Unfortunately, little was recorded from this time period beyond what happened in the Councils, which is probably why our guide in Toledo and other parts of Spain spent little time talking about the Visigoths.

The only guide I recall speaking at any length was Nuno, our terrific small group cicerone in Portugal, who shared stories about the final days of Roderic, the last King of the Visigoths.

And there are many more layers of Toledo that could be revealed.

Toledo was known as the "Imperial City," for being the main court of Spanish King Charles I who was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Toledo is also in the land of La Mancha, bringing to mind the story of Don Quixote told by the greatest Spanish-language writer and one of the premier novelist in world history, Miguel de Cervantes.

And even on the subject of religion,Toledo is known as the City of Three Cultures for the impact of Christian, Hebrew and Muslim cultures, and of course we barely scratched the surface of the latter two.

Can you experience all of Toledo in a day?

Obviously not, but then again, it is a huge, fascinating world, and you will never have time to experience all it has to offer.

You can start tasting areas of interest to you.

Iberia should definitely be on your bucket list.