Travels in Spain – Toledo, City of Steel

“A castle stands sentinel across the stream; harsh grey hills are all about: the setting of Toledo is all abrasion, nothing soft, nothing hospitable, nothing amusing.  This is the Spanish character at its most intractable” –  Jan Morris – ‘Spain’

Toledo has always been one of the most important cities in Spain and for many years actually contested the status of capital with nearby Madrid and was in fact the principal city until 1560.  But Madrid gradually came to prominence under the Hapsburg Monarchy and Phillip II moved his court there and made it his Capital in 1561.

Toledo compensated for this by reinventing itself as the principal religious city in the country and today remains the seat of the Primate of all Spain.

At the end of the climb from the car park we entered the city at the busy main square, the Plaza Zocodover, which was surrounded by tall imperial buildings and confusing little streets leaking away in all directions.  Without a map we were rather confused and disoriented because this was easily the biggest place we had visited so far.  It was hot and claustrophobic and it felt tense and a little bit edgy but with a distinctly vibrant buzz.

Toledo is so well-preserved and packed with cultural wonder that the entire city has been declared a national monument. It’s an ideal place to savour the delights of Spain: cultural, historic and tasty. There are no modern buildings here.

After a while we established our bearings and walked to the Alcázar, which was closed for improvements into a planned new museum but being at the top of the city did have spectacular views over the river and the lands stretched out to the south.  We were still unsure of our location and after an aborted refreshment stop at a bar with a broken loo and unacceptably loud music we threaded our way into the maze of narrow streets and walking in the general direction of the Cathedral.

It was time to stop for refreshment and we spotted tables and activity in a large courtyard and chose, rather carelessly it turned out, a table in the sunshine.  The waiter looked like the actor Victor Mature and he immediately approached and provided us with menus and then hung about to hurry an order.  It was quite expensive so we explained that we would just have a drink and this seemed to displease him greatly.  We were served the beers but he was most unfriendly and made us feel quite unwelcome and awkward so we drank it quickly and left.

Next door there was a friendly little tapas bar so we slipped in there instead and had an assortment of tasty dishes and a second beer.  The unfriendly expensive place had about half a dozen staff and no customers and this place was full to overflowing with just one, rushed off his feet, waiter and there was a message in there somewhere.

After lunch we walked to the Cathedral and paid the entrance fee of €7, which turned out to be excellent value compared to the €2 to get into the church in Belmonte.  It is one of the biggest cathedrals in the world and the interior is not at all austere as some cathedrals can be.

I hate it when people get something for nothing – like those garden make over programmes on TV for example so it was rather annoying was the fact that for those who didn’t want to pay the admission charge they could enter by a side door and although they couldn’t walk around freely and see all of the internal rooms and the especially impressive choir area, they could certainly see and appreciate the magnificent structure for free.

Outside the Cathedral we found a tourist information office and now we had a map the city was suddenly much easier to negotiate.  In the past Toledo had changed hands many times and it was renowned for its diversity and religious toleration and we visited a synagogue with, unusually for a synagogue, free admission and then after walking through a warren of mazy streets came out on the other side overlooking the modern town to the north.

Every available square metre of this rocky outcrop has been built upon and the buildings are heaped together in a random and haphazard way with cobbled lanes revealing new and unexpected delights at every twist and turn.  We negotiated the narrow confusing streets and the surprises back towards the Plaza Zocodover and as we did so passed through an area of artisans workshops where metal workers were making swords and knives and displaying them in the windows.

Traditionally Toledo is famous for its production of steel and especially of swords and the city is still a centre for the manufacture of knives and other steel implements.  For soldiers and adventurers in past times a sword made of Toledo steel was a must have item because the quality of the steel and the skill of the blacksmiths combined to make an exceptionally strong and perfect lethal weapon.

In literature and film the Three Musketeers had Toledo steel swords and so did my most favourite swordsman of all – Don Diego de la Vega who was more famously known as Zorro.

The manufacturing process was a carefully guarded secret.  To make such an exceptional weapon the craftsman had to select the very best raw materials and then follow a complicated technical process to achieve the perfect balance between hard and soft steel forged at a volcanic temperature of 1454º Fahrenheit for exactly the right length of time and then followed by a critical cooling and shaping process which couldn’t be rushed.

So complicated was this whole procedure and so perfect was the finished weapon that to achieve this level of precision a master craftsman would typically only be able to make two or three blades in a year.

Little wonder then that they were so expensive!