December 18th A last visit to Toledo
Toledo was our first venture out of the city and today we
will go for our last visit there. Our
primary goal is to visit the cathedral since we weren’t able to see it last
time. It is the seat of the Spanish
Catholic church and as such has played a major part in Spanish history. The Spanish Catholic church is very
conservative and throughout history has maintained a powerful influence on the
culture, things have changed somewhat now but it still wields quite a bit of
influence. No inquisition now, but it
was a main prop for Franco’s regime, and a large percentage of the population
here is still devout. Now to the
cathedral; first of all it’s massive not quite as large as Seville but still
mighty large. And it’s quite subdued on
one level but quite flamboyant on another.
The architecture is gothic but quite plain on the inside, it was started
in the 1200’s and took 450 years to complete, then you get to the stuff that is
contained within its vaults. Firstly, a
130 foot plateresce altar, covered with carvings and gilded to the point that
it glows, there are several life-sized bas-relief sculptures covering the
birth, life and death of Jesus. It is
flanked by tombs of two Spanish monarchs and their queens set into niches about
20 feet off the floor, and then there is the primary cardinal/archbishop from
the time of Ferdinand and Isabella who is entombed next to one of the set.
Another interesting thing is that there are
four later cardinals who are buried in the cathedral as well and over each of
their graves is hanging their cardinal hat.
Evidently a cardinal can designate where he wants to be buried in a
church and their wished are carried out after death. I’ve never seen cardinal hats hanging before
and it was quite interesting, since they hang there until they disintegrate (the
hats not the cardinals). Anyway once
again it’s a pretty impressive edifice.
We’ve decided, Deb's idea and I agree, that the building in Bilbao designed by Frank Geary is the
20th century equivalent to a cathedral from the middle ages, an icon
to the beliefs and hopes of a culture. We
will try to visit El Escorial before we go so stay tuned.
Toledo was our first venture out of the city and today we
will go for our last visit there. Our
primary goal is to visit the cathedral since we weren’t able to see it last
time. It is the seat of the Spanish
Catholic church and as such has played a major part in Spanish history. The Spanish Catholic church is very
conservative and throughout history has maintained a powerful influence on the
culture, things have changed somewhat now but it still wields quite a bit of
influence. No inquisition now, but it
was a main prop for Franco’s regime, and a large percentage of the population
here is still devout. Now to the
cathedral; first of all it’s massive not quite as large as Seville but still
mighty large. And it’s quite subdued on
one level but quite flamboyant on another.
The architecture is gothic but quite plain on the inside, it was started
in the 1200’s and took 450 years to complete, then you get to the stuff that is
contained within its vaults. Firstly, a
130 foot plateresce altar, covered with carvings and gilded to the point that
it glows, there are several life-sized bas-relief sculptures covering the
birth, life and death of Jesus. It is
flanked by tombs of two Spanish monarchs and their queens set into niches about
20 feet off the floor, and then there is the primary cardinal/archbishop from
the time of Ferdinand and Isabella who is entombed next to one of the set. 
Another interesting thing is that there are
four later cardinals who are buried in the cathedral as well and over each of
their graves is hanging their cardinal hat.
Evidently a cardinal can designate where he wants to be buried in a
church and their wished are carried out after death. I’ve never seen cardinal hats hanging before
and it was quite interesting, since they hang there until they disintegrate (the
hats not the cardinals). Anyway once
again it’s a pretty impressive edifice.
We’ve decided, Deb's idea and I agree, that the building in Bilbao designed by Frank Geary is the
20th century equivalent to a cathedral from the middle ages, an icon
to the beliefs and hopes of a culture. We
will try to visit El Escorial before we go so stay tuned.
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