So there is a famous painting by El Greco. It is the Toledo skyline. Here is the real deal. I have to say, he did a pretty accurate representation. It maybe helps that the city is full of old buildings and when you walk through the streets it seems to hardly have changed at all, but he also captured the spirit of the city.
Within the city is the Cathedral of Toledo. The real name is the Cathedral of Santa Maria, but everyone just refers to its as the Cathedral of Toleda because almost every cathedral is the Cathedral of Santa Maria. Inside the cathedral there is a wonderful mixture of architecture, the overwhelming portion gothic of course. However, there is also a section of Baroque and Roman architecture, a secret small chapel behind the alter piece and the wall, and even some very dirty pornographic carvings in the woodwork where the choir sat. The carvings are meant to depict daily life. Apparently they decided that they needed to depict all of it.
We also went to go see the dressing room for all the parish workers. It was filled with beautiful artwork, a huge amount of it done by Greco. The image below is a representation of Joseph and Jesus, only El Greco painted himself as Joseph and his son as Jesus. They are supposed to be standing in front of Jerusalem, but if you look closely at the city, you can see that it is Toledo.
The ceiling was also beautifully painted, but the irony is that the word on the left in Hebrew is supposed to say God. However, it is misspelled because the artist didn't speak or write Hebrew.
The tower on this cathedral can be seen from almost every street in the town. Also the building on the left is where the cardinal used to live. There is a handy personal bridge connecting the home to the church.
After we saw the cathedral, we went to another church to see one of El Greco's most famous works,"El entierro del Señor de Orgaz." It was commissioned to represent the burial of a man who had funded the construction of a church during the 1300s so that he could be buried there. In the picture you can see 3 miracles: St. Stephen and St. Augustine come down from heaven to bury the man; 2-his soul emerges in the form of a baby and is carried to heaven by an angel; 3-Jesus opens the heavens to welcome his soul. Also El Greco was very fond of his son. You can see him painted again on the lower left standing next to the dead man. El Greco is also painted here. He is the skinny face right above the hand above St. Stephen's head.
After that we went to the Synagogue of Santa Maria Blanca. It is the second oldest synagogue in Europe. Why is it named after Mary? Because it was converted into a church for a while. It's an interesting place because it mixes a little bit of every religion. The synagogue is filled with Islamic architecture (you can see it in the details of the columns and also the rounded arches). It also has the remains of the Christian construction on the building from when it became a church in 1411 (that is the colorful fresco behind). Basically, the first program happened in Spain in 1391. Their was unrest and debate about what to do with the Jews, and in 1411 the Spaniards decided that the Jews could stay in Toledo, but that they would take their best synagogue and turn it in to a church. However, all the Jews were expelled from Spain anyway in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella, so it was basically just a tough time to be the chosen people.
In the whole synagogue there isn't a single Star of David. In the tiles, there is an 8-pointed star, which is actually an Islamic symbol. However, you can find the Star of David in churches in Europe. The reason is because the Star of David wasn't a symbol of the Jews until about the late 1500s and early 1600s, and this synagogue predates that. Before that, the Star of David was a symbol of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
And with Toledo I got a little bit of a taste for what I love about the history of Córdoba - the mixing of cultures and religion. This orientation trip, a whirlwind through Spain, is not only showing me the beauty of the Spanish countryside but making me even more excited to discover my new home for the next few months.
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