Toledo (Spain)

Toledo (Spain), city in central Spain, capital of Castilla-La Mancha region and of Toledo Province, on the River Tagus, near Madrid. The city is built on a promontory, about 732 m (2,400 ft) above sea level, bordered on three sides by a gorge in the Tagus, with the landward side protected by an inner and outer wall. Population 77,601 (2006 estimate).

The most famous industry is the manufacture of swords from the world-famous Toledo steel, both by private companies and by a government factory. Other products include beer, confectionery, church ornaments, textiles, bricks, and fans.

Toledo has many towers, old gates, narrow winding streets, massive houses, and predominantly Moorish architecture, which give it a medieval atmosphere. In the centre of the city rises the principal edifice, a Gothic cathedral (1227-1493) with 40 chapels. Other important buildings include the Gothic church of San Juan de los Reyes and its adjoining convent, a gift (1476) from Ferdinand V, king of Castile, and his wife Isabella I; El Tránsito, a synagogue (1366) that was converted to a church after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492; and the Church of Santo Tomé, originally a mosque and rebuilt as a Gothic church in the 14th century. The churches of Toledo contain some of the greatest works of art in Spain, notably those by the painter El Greco. On the highest ground stands the fortified palace called the Alcázar, a vast, square building with four towers, now a military academy, around which the houses of Toledo are grouped in a semicircle. The Plaza de Zocodover, built in the 7th century and later rebuilt by Moorish invaders, is a fashionable promenade and was long the site on which victims of the Inquisition were burnt, and where bullfights took place. Toledo was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

Of pre-Roman origin, the city fell to the Romans about 193 bc and was named Toletum. From about ad 534 to 712, Toledo was the capital of the Visigothic kingdom in Spain and became an important ecclesiastical centre. After its conquest in 712 by the Arabs, the city became a Moorish city and in the 11th century the capital of a short-lived Moorish kingdom (1035-1085). In 1085, after a memorable siege, the city was captured by the forces of Castile and annexed to the Castilian realms, of which it was made the capital (1087-1560). From July to September 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, rebel forces in the Alcázar were besieged for 70 days by Loyalist (Republican) forces.