ESPAÑA – TOLEDO ON A CORPUS CHRISTI DAY

Alcazar, Alcazar bridge and Tagus River

For any visitor of Spain's capital city of Madrid, who has a day or two to spare wandering around the big city, a trip to nearby Toledo should be a must do. Placed at about 70 km south of Madrid, it is easily riched in an hour by taking a speed train from Atocha Railway Station (the main train station in Madrid) for a 20 euro ticket/pers.

Toledo railway station - Neo-Mudéjar architectural style

Traditional Toledo ceramic

An UNESCO World Heritage site, Toledo is packed with historical sites beginning with Roman Empire and peaking with Middle Age cathedrals and buildings. The whole Old City is still retaining its medieval road plain, with narrow twisted streets, on which you can loose yourself for hours, wondering at all those old buildings, filled with art, history and traditional crafts.

I had the chance to arrive in Toledo on 3^rd of June 2010, in the middle of the feast of Corpus Christi, a main event in the city throughout the year, to watch the procession and see the whole city adorned with festive flags and flowers, with people dressed in traditional castillian clothes and many small shops selling traditional and specific Toledo things.

Puerta de Bisagra

Narrow streets in Tole

The first sight of Toledo after exiting the train station is Alcazar fortress built in the16^th century located in the highest part of town on the left side of Tagus River, that enclose the city on three sides. 
We choosed to enter the city through Puerta de Bisagra, then we just walked aroun on the many tiny streets among monasteries, churches and buildings that combine maurish and gothic style to rich after a while the imposing Catedral de Toledo, built between 1226–1493, combining the classical gothic style with some characteristics of the Mudéjar style. This is a masterpiece of medieval art, with so many sculptural finesse on outside!

The Gothic Cathedral of Toledo

Scultures on the Cathedral of Toledo

Zocodover Square - Toledo

Another narrow street

Then, through Zocodover square (the Plaza Mayor of the city) we hit again the contorted streets towards Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes another architectural masterpiece built in the 15^th century in a Gothic-Spanish-Flemish style.

Castillian traditional clothing

Toledo swords

With the same importance as the architectural monuments are the traditional crafts of Toledo, from which stands above the great tradition in the manufacture of swords and other blades. They still produce them, some following the old method other just for touristic gifts, but all of them are handcrafted with fine skills. 

Black ceramic with gold paintings is another specific Toledan crafts, as is also the jewelery making, so you can buy some fine things from here, depending on how large your wallet is.

Christ sculpture on a Toledo building.

Puerta de Sol

 On the afternoon when we realized that we are about to loose our train back to Madrid, we made a running exit (but not a quick one, among all the crooked streets) through Alcántara bridge and then right to the railway station, just in time to catch our conection, leaving in me the impression that we needed at least one more day to see, learn and enjoy this really unique city of the world.

Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes - Toledo