Toledo’s idyllic setting on a plateau high above the Tajo River has always given it a special mystique for the visitor. It was this setting that appealed to centuries of painters including El Greco, whose home and museum contains an extensive collection of his paintings.

During its heyday as capital (before it was moved to Madrid in 1561), Toledo was one of the most enlightened cities in Europe and a famous center for medicine, translation and manuscripts. While the rest of Europe was suffering through the Dark Ages, Toledo was shining bright and prospering.

Toledo was a society of great tolerance that attracted Muslim, Jewish and Christian men of learning and commerce. It was the scholars of Toledo who kept the works of the Greeks and Romans from becoming lost to future generations. Prominent schools of science, mathematics, theology and mysticism developed here, as well as schools of the occult and alchemy.

Although often overshadowed by nearby Madrid, it is Toledo - its narrow, winding streets and steps, stone houses, unpretentious museums - that embodies the soul of Spain’s intriguing past.

For those interested in Jewish heritage, two of the oldest (13th and 14th centuries) and most interesting medieval synagogues in Europe are found here: one now houses the Museo Sefardi; the other, strikingly similar to the architecture of the Moorish mosque, was later converted into a church and still goes by the name of Santa Maria la Blanca.