Toledo Half-Day Tour from Madrid

Plaza de Zocodover

The Plaza de Zocodover is a square of the city of Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castilla la Mancha. It was the nerve center of the city during most of its history, acting as its main square. A part of it was designed by Juan de Herrera in times of the reign of Felipe II. Here horses, donkeys, foals, mares, mules and other beasts were sold, when the city of Toledo was Spanish-Muslim city. Here was organized the most important market of the city. It has been celebrating for centuries, it is a weekly market. Today it celebrate on Tuesday in the vicinity of Paseo de Merchán or de la Vega.

Church of Saint Tomé

The parish church must have been founded after the Christian Reconquista of the city by Alfonso VI in 1085, as the first news that we have of its existence is from 1142. From the first Mudejar building, it has kept the large multifoil arch superimposed upon the main arch that separates the main nave from the presbytery together with the sturdy buttresses of this part of the nave and a small trefoil arch on a brick frieze arranged in Mudejar style that survives in the high part in what used to be the semicircular sanctuary of the original single nave church.

Toledo Cathedral Church

The Primate Cathedral of Santa María de Toledo is currently part of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toledo.

The Cathedral Church has a theological value and significance as a reference for the pastoral life of the entire diocese, for priests and for the lay faithful. In addition, cathedrals have been the forging place of our Western and European culture; In them was the embryo of the current universities, they anticipated welfare work and were art workshops. Today the cathedrals are witnesses of that culture and message of transcendence and values ​​for the people of today.

The construction is in the Gothic style with a clear French influence. It measures 120 m long by 60 m wide. It is made up of 5 naves, supported by 88 columns and 72 vaults. The lateral naves extend behind the Main Chapel surrounding the presbytery and creating an ambulatory with a double semicircular corridor. Its first architect is the master Martín, of French origin, to whom the traces of the plant and the beginnings of the work on the head of the temple are owed.

Until the fourteenth century the lateral naves could not be closed, and it is in this same century when the lower cloister with its dependencies was built, at the time of Archbishop D. Pedro Tenorio and on the north side, the most notable being the Chapel of San Blas that will serve as burial.

In the 15th century, the Chapel of San Pedro was built next to the entrance to the cloister, and later, the Chapel of Santiago, a family pantheon of the Luna family, was built at the head. At the end of this century, in 1493, with the Archbishop Don Pedro González de Mendoza, counselor of Isabel la Católica, the last vault was closed and this great construction was concluded.

In the 16th century the altarpiece, the upper part of the choir and bars were built. In the first half of the century, all the stained glass windows were closed and various plant modifications were made, such as the chapter room and the Mozárabe chapel with Cisneros, and the Los Reyes Nuevos chapel with Fonseca.

The Cathedral is the Mother Church of the diocese because it is the chair or seat of the Bishop, the place from which he presides over the Eucharist and other liturgical celebrations and exercises his magisterium. Therefore, the Cathedral is like a visible sign of the particular church, a portion of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Jesus Christ.

Santa María la Blanca

At present the building belongs to the Catholic Church, but there is no cult in it. It is open to the public and functions as a museum or center where both cultural and educational activities take place.