The cathedral in Toledo seems as immense as its name—Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption—and that’s no accident. It is, in a sense, the final act of a long chain of religious and political ‘top this!’
A Roman temple or two once occupied the site, until its place was taken by a Christian church. A larger Christian church was consecrated there in 587; two centuries later, after the Islamic conquest of Iberia, it was razed and replaced by an even larger main mosque of Toledo.
After Toledo was captured again by Christian monarchs, the present cathedral was built, starting in 1226. The huge five-nave main sanctuary covers every inch of the previous prayer hall; the bell tower sits on the footprint of the minaret, and the open-air sahn of the mosque was replaced by the cloister.
The effect on the ground is not so much one of being in a huge building as being in a neighborhood of streets and passages lined with buildings of various sorts, in early evening so no sunlight. The impression is in part because the cathedral has five naves, or main aisles with many crossings.
The gorgeous glasswork, in several styles over the centuries and the incredibly-ornate main altar, add an emphasis to Toledo’s special place in Spanish history. It was the capital of the largest Visigoth kingdom before the Moors arrived; when it was conquered in 1085 by Alfonso VI of Castile, it became the de facto Christian capital of Spain.
The great cities of the south were still ruled by Muslims, and Madrid was a small provincial fortress. In 1088, Pope Urban II named it ‘primatial,’ giving it a status above all others in Spain, similar to that held in Britain by Canterbury. That’s also helped to focus donations on it over the centuries.
There are three major organs in the cathedral, which are sometimes played in ‘organ battles,’ sadly I didn’t get to hear any of them. The oldest was built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 18th, when the second major organ was added.
Ornate carving is everywhere, both in wood and stone. The seats in the choir section, incredibly, each have individual designs, each one with its own narrative panel on the back.
Possibly the tallest painting I’ve ever seen, or at least of one individual. Painted in 1638 by Gabriel de Ruedas, it is over 35 feet high.
But that’s only the beginning of the cathedral’s art collection. Aside from pictures and statues throughout, the bulk of the art is in the ornate sacristy. The sacristy is the place for storing sacred vessels and vestments of a church, but in Toledo it goes far beyond that—even the chests that hold vestments are masterpieces.
In the main chamber, in one stunning assembly, we see the tomb of a 19th century cardinal who was a member of the Spanish royal family, flanked above by two El Greco portraits of Apostles. The cathedral has an entire set, one of several he painted of apostles by El Greco. The curators have paired them with several apostles by modern painter Jose Maria Cano.
One of the major pieces in the sacristy is a three-dimensional El Greco, the ‘bestowal of the chasuble on St Ildefonso,’ originally mounted as part of an altarpiece that went with the El Greco picture below it, the Disrobing of Christ.
A few more selections from the unusual-in-a-church gallery—Pope Paul III, by Titian; Cardinal Borja by Velasquez; the Holy Family by Van Dyck and John the Baptist by Caravaggio.
A last stop before leaving the cathedral: the massive cloister and garden that frame views of sky and the bell tower.
Such detail! So beautiful!