1. Valley Viewpoint

The Alcázar is a fortification on rocks, located in the highest part of the city of Toledo. Its name is due to the Arabs, who called it "Al Qasar", which means "fortress".

The investigations carried out have attested to the existence, at the beginning of our era (Roman times), of a walled enclosure that started from a defensive construction, located in the highest area of ​​Toledo and continued in a straight line towards Zocodover and Miradero, to join it again through the Alcántara Bridge.

During the Middle Ages, in the Visigoth era, King Leovigild (573-586 AD) established Toledo as its capital and from then on the surroundings of the Alcázar were used as "royal residences." Later, in Muslim times, it became an Arab fortress (alcazaba), the residence of the cadi, ordered to be built by Abd al-Rahman III in 932 AD and already at the time of the Reconquista, in 1085, when Alfonso VI conquered the city, this monarch ordered build a new Alcázar on the existing one. Alfonso

2.Alcázar fortress in Toledo

The Plaza de Zocodover has been beautifully defined by Julio Porres Martín-Cleto as a “little place of Castile, cattle market, melting pot of language, concentration of various small shops and repeated scene of celebrations, autos-da-fe and small provincial vanities for several centuries.” ”.

Possibly laid out during Roman domination, it mainly preserves samples of Arab architecture, and this is also the origin of its name. Zocodover is nothing more than the Castilianization of an Arabic term that means "beast market", as this square is where the souk was located. Henry IV, already in 1465, granted Toledo the celebration of a weekly fair, based in this square, known to all as “Tuesday.”

Its layout (almost triangular), its limits and its accesses have undergone few changes since the Middle Ages. Around 1616 the city council bought and demolished several houses to widen the entrance to Ancha Street in Zocodover. He did the same, in 1866, with the building that closed the square at the beginning of Calle de las Armas and delimited by it and the then disappeared Calle de la Lamparilla. The widening of the main entrances will conclude on those dates with the demolition of the arches that closed the square at the beginning of the Alcázar slope or Carlos V slope.

Don't forget, if you are going to spend the night in the city, that from this square you can start a pleasant walk through the alleys of the old town under the light of the streetlights.

3.Zocodover Square

One of the most attractive areas that the city of Toledo offers to take the best photo of the city is the Mirador del Valle. Located on the other side of the Tagus River, the Mirador del Valle is one of the places in the city of Toledo that is most visited to see the best panoramic view of the city.

The breeze that caresses this corner seems to carry with it the echoes of forgotten legends. Nestled in the hills that guard the ancient city, the Mirador del Valle is a silent witness to countless stories that fade at the dawn of time. From here, the spirit of the ancients walks by our side, while the horizon merges with memories of bygone eras. From this point, it is said that Don Rodrigo contemplated with melancholy the loss of his precious city, capital of the kingdom of the Goths that he did not know how to defend, while the tears of the Tagus River drew a path of sadness in its waters. A similar fate befell the Muslim Abul-Walid, who had to leave his beloved Sobeyha within the walls of Tulaytula.

4. Alcantara Bridge in Toledo

The Alcántara Bridge rises where the Tagus River narrows as it passes through Toledo in its eastern part, at the foot of the San Servando Castle and next to the Alcántara Gate.

It is a Roman construction built in the 3rd century AD that became a transit area through which the Roman roads crossed the river and entered the city.

Rebuilt on numerous occasions, one of them was produced in the 10th century by Alef, son of Mohomat Alameri, in the year 997, as recorded in an inscription. Its current name is taken from this time, from the Arabic "Alcántara" which means bridge.

Later, during the rest of the Middle Ages, it was an obligatory entrance for all pilgrims, also exercising the function of controlling merchandise and portage, a task carried out by the magistrate and mayor of the city.

Under the reign of Alfonso X it suffered serious damage and was rebuilt again (13th century). The western tower belongs to this last period, later modified and decorated under the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and whose weapons decorate its walls.

Originally it had two towers, located at the eastern and western ends of the bridge, and three eyes, although one of them was bricked up in the Islamic period and replaced by the opening of a small horseshoe arch.

The eastern tower was replaced by a baroque triumphal arch in 1721, given its ruinous state. The arch, built of brick and stone, is surrounded by a giant order of pilasters and decorated with garlands, topped by an attic that develops as a curved pediment decorated by a niche with the image of the Immaculate Conception.

At the beginning of the 20th century it belonged to the ducal house of Alba but in 1911 it was expropriated by the State and was declared a National Monument in 1921.

5. The Museum of Ancient Torture Instruments

Among the more than one hundred monuments and museums that the city of Toledo preserves, a small exhibition tells us the macabre and dark part of the coexistence of the Three Cultures in our city and the terrible tools used to persecute and subdue heresies and everything that It deviated from the doctrines imposed by the civil and religious powers, essentially the latter, at the hands of the feared Inquisition. We tell you everything about the Museum of Ancient Torture Instruments of Toledo and what you will find inside.

Avoiding darkness, the presentation of the devices and machines used by civil and ecclesiastical courts to obtain confessions reveal to us the true dimension of the activities of the Inquisition, its organization , its importance as a motor and censor of ideas and attitudes and the consequences that derived from this for the societies of the moment.

6. The ancestral tradition of damascening

Damascene, so called because it is a craft technique originating in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has remote origins, as ancient as the Egyptian, Greek or Roman civilization, as well as the Chinese and Japanese, in which damascene or “ ataujía” to decorate the katanas. There are vestiges of more than 1500 years old.

It is the Arabs who brought the art of damascening after the invasion of the peninsula in the year 711, it will be a know-how that will complement and enrich the already traditional relationship between Toledo and the steel of its very personal forge industry and swords.

Toledo will thus become the largest producer of damascenes in the world. The offer includes traditional Arabic modeling, the Renaissance style introduced in the 16th century and representing floral, animal or landscape motifs, and also the new model called "views."

Damascene can be defined as the art of inlaying gold sheets and thread of 24 karat gold (4mm thick yellow gold), 22 karat gold (4mm thick green gold) and silver (9.25mm thick) on a base of soft iron, a material that the artisan previously treats chemically, with nitric acid, to create a certain porosity in the iron and thus be able to embed the sheet and the gold thread. The inlay uses a chisel and hammer to fuse the thread or sheet with the porous iron, leaving the gold and iron as a single body.

After joining iron and gold, the craftsman carries out the so-called bluing, introducing the object into a solution of caustic soda and potassium nitrate at a temperature of 800ºC so that the iron takes on a black color and the gold shines even more, in the case of a oxidation that is done to iron and that cleans it of impurities. Next, the decorations are made with a chisel, with the so-called review of the piece, where the work comes to life and the damascener impregnates its own identity.

7. Mosque of the christ of light

Oldest standing monument in Toledo. Built in the year 999, the Old Mosque, current Hermitage of Cristo de la Luz, is the oldest standing monument in the city of Toledo.

Small but rich in history and art. Its similarities and differences with the great mosque of Córdoba make it a tourist attraction that you should not miss if you come to know Toledo and want to soak up its multicultural history.

Islamic Toledo, very unknown to many, enjoys a relevant significance in this unique building. The Toledo of the three cultures made into a building: the achievement of civilizations that was the protagonist of much of the history of our city becomes a reality in this mosque converted into a church.

8.Hinge Door

It is of Muslim origin, from whose period it preserves remains in the second interior body. Its name derives from the Arabic word Bab-Shagra, which means "Holy Gate". It was completely rebuilt under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, according to the plans of Alonso de Covarrubias. It is made up of two bodies, between which a parade ground is inserted.

The monumental exterior body is formed by a triumphal arch of padded ashlars, crowned by an enormous imperial shield of the city, with its unmistakable double-headed eagle and flanked by two large semicircular masonry towers with the figures of two seated kings, symbols of good medieval shield government.

The interior body has a semicircular arch flanked by square towers crowned by ceramic spiers, on one side of which the imperial shield of Charles V appears, and checkered on the others.

The monumental and non-defensive character is evident in the inversion of the embrasures located almost at ground level and ashlars in relief crowning the towers.

9.Roman terms

Known since 1986, the archaeological remains preserved in this place illustrate the monumentality that the city of Toledo must have had in Roman times, laid out and equipped following the urban planning model prevailing at the time and emanating from the capital of the Empire: the city of Rome. The dimensions of this caldarium, the careful planning of its construction and the materials used in its decoration (marbles, statues) allow us to indicate a public character of the building, built, without a doubt, under the auspices of the Imperial power. Regarding the chronology of the remains, although two clearly different construction moments can be seen in their construction, they correspond to a period located between the end of the 19th century. I and the middle of the s. II AD

10.Caves of Hercules

The site that houses the so-called Caves of Hercules has a rich architectural history, as it has been occupied by different buildings throughout history: in Roman times a water tank had been built here to the supply of the city, which was part of the Roman hydraulic network of Toletum. Later, in the Visigothic period, it seems that a Christian temple was built on the water tank. Then a mosque. Later, probably in the 12th century, a new temple was built in the same place, dedicated to San Ginés, seat of the homonymous parish.
With respect to the Roman cistern (water tank), new and interesting data have been obtained. The investigation has been able to confirm that the tank was built around the second half of the 1st century AD with a rectangular shape, measuring 6.00 m. wide by at least 11.50 m. long and 4.00 high. It was made with small stones mixed with a strong mixture of lime, gypsum and sand (opus caementicium) and coated on the inside with a special hydraulic cement (opus signinum).
At a later time, still to be established (although always within the framework of the Roman era), the original construction was partially covered on the inside with large granite ashlars and divided in two longitudinally by means of three large arches also made of granite. . Above the two resulting naves, connected to each other by means of arches, two vaults were built with white limestone blocks (only one of the two naves is property of the Consortium).
As is known, the caves of Hercules have given rise to multiple legends, already recorded in medieval texts. According to them, the caves would be natural caves, to which Hercules, founder of the city, would have given an architectural structure to install his palaces there, where magical arts and necromancy were practiced.
Other legends relate them to the disappearance of the Visigoth kingdom at the hands of the Arabs, since it would have been Hercules himself who, with his divination skills, left the prophecy of the destruction of the Visigoth kingdom in a closed chest, making it explicit that each king placed a padlock more. But it was the curiosity or greed of King Don Rodrigo who opened the chest and launched the curse of the prophecy, losing his kingdom in the hands of Islam and the palace being destroyed by supernatural forces, of which only the caves remained. The association of the basements of San Ginés with the legendary Caves of Hercules occurred in the 16th century and the first exploration (partly unsuccessful) was due to Cardinal Siliceo.