Toledo

Toledo occupies a hill on a loop in the River Tagus, and is immediately impressive whether you approach by car or are walking or catching the bus up from one of its stations. The Alcázar looms majestically over the city, and domes and spires poke out all over the place. For Toledo was and is Spain's ecclesiastical centre par excellence, with a higher concentration of clergymen per square metre than anywhere else in the country. It is still the most important diocese or archidiocese in the country, and the seat of the Cardinal Primate of Spain. Though more secular nowadays, it is still a highly conservative place, even though being made the capital of the autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha has given it a new lease of life.

Toledo's peak period was as the "city of the three cultures" in the 11th to 13th centuries, a time when Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities not only coexisted but flourished. Toledo became the richest Spanish city north of Cordoba, and Sephardic Jews in particular consider the Toledo of that time a pinnacle of Jewish culture.

Toledo for Visitors. Toledo is a World Heritage City, with over 100 historic buildings and sights, far too many to list here. Its highlights include the third largest Gothic cathedral in the world after Seville and Milan, the Plaza de Zocódover, the city's main square, the Alcázar, a 16th-century fortress, the Judería, Jewish quarter, with its mediaeval synagogues, and the traces left by El Greco's time in the city, including his masterpiece, The Burial of Count Orgaz. Personally, I am going to add to this list the small but lovely (and contradictorily named) Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, and the sheer pleasure of strolling around the mediaeval streets.

Toledo Cathedral. The foundation stone for this was laid in 1226, but work took another two and a half centuries. It is enormous, 120 metres long and 59 wide, with a high vaulted roof supported by 88 fluted columns, but it is difficult to tell from the outside. Inside, the impression of space is tremendous, and in the light of the morning, the building is positively airy. Highlights include the choir, the stained glass, the cathedral museum (for once, unmissable) and the fantastic altarpiece behind the main altar. In turn, behind and all around this you will see red cardinal's hats hanging from the ceiling: they mark the spot where a Spanish cardinal is buried.

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. This is on display in the vestibule of the otherwise unremarkable church of Santo Tomé (c/Santo Tome s/n). It shows the count in question being lowered into his tomb by Saints Stephen and Augustine, which is fine but nothing to write home about. It is not the central theme of this enormous painting that fascinates, but the onlookers, both terrestrial and heavenly, some of whom are clearly based on real people. El Greco himself is in there somewhere, as is Philip II, though it does not matter much if you cannot pick them out: what you are seeing is an illustration of God-given power.

Casa (Museo) del Greco (Calle Samuel Levi s/n). Well, no it isn't, though they used to think it was. Never mind, it is nicely done out as if it were, and has a reasonable collection of his works, including the View and Map of Toledo.

Judería ("Jewish quarter" just doesn't quite work as the translation). C/de los Amarillos takes you down to this area, through even narrower streets. There is a Sephardic Museum around here which has been closed for as long as I can remember, leaving its two synagogues as the main attraction. The Synagoga del Tránsito (Paseo Transito s/n) was built by Samuel Levi in the fourteenth century in Morisco style. The Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca (Calle Reyes Catolicos s/n) is characteristic of Toledo's Mudéjar style, with horseshoe arches and Andalusian-looking ornamentation.

Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz (Calle Cristo de la Luz s/n). A tiny tenth-century mosque, one of the oldest Muslim constructions in Spain, built on the site of a Visigothic church and reclaimed as a church later, so the nearly square nave is actually the only Muslim part, and is quite interesting and charming enough to warrant the visit, though the apse is said to be the earliest Mudéjar construction in Toledo.

Plaza del Zocódover. The name comes from the Arabic souk, market, but the Zocódover doesn't feel Arab in the least. In fact, if you were looking for a classic example of a provincial Spanish town square, this might well do, being where everyone congregates for a drink in the early evening, or at least passes through during their paseo, stroll. Except that it is overlooked by the...

Alcázar. Toledo's most emblematic and, in many ways, sinister building. It is a fortress dating from the time of Charles I, though there probably really was an alcázar, Arab fortified palace, before it. It has burnt down or otherwise been destroyed at least four times, the last during the Spanish Civil War, and occupies a privileged position in Spanish fascist mythology (see Toledo History). It will become the location for the new Army Museum.