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office, or at least on the map they supply, is the Centro de Interpretacion de Toledo. Unfortunately the informative plaques, tablets and labels are only in Spanish. You are however given a bound set of A4 sheets that translate everything into English. Please return them at the end of your visit. As you can imagine this exhibit does the job that the museum should be doing and then some.

The Toledo site has been occupied since prehistoric times. When the Romans arrived in the area in 193 BC they found an existing Celtiberian city called Tollitum. The Romans occupied the city and in time built a dam and an aqueduct, the remains of which can still be seen. The Allans arrived after the Romans departed and the Visigoths in turn drove them out. They established their court in Toledo in 569 AD and in 589 it became the political and religious capital of Hispania after the then Visigothic king, Recaredo, converted from Aryanism to Catholicism. In 712 the city capitulated without a fight to the Moors. Their religious tolerance allowed Christians to co-exist with the Moors which led to the Mozarab culture.
The Mozarabs developed a liturgy that was used in the churches and, after the 13th Century, in the cathedral, that was eventually, in 2006, officially recognised by the Pope. There is still today a strong, proud and influential Mozarab population in Toledo.
Water was important to the Romans and even more so to the Moors. Granite, the rock on which Toledo is built, is not only extremely hard, making well digging impossible with the technology that then existed, it is also impermeable. The traditional methods of human and animal water carriers from the river up into the city could not supply the thousands of gallons of water required by the population. The Moors had a solution. A model of the incredible water lift they built is on display in the Interpretation Centre.
The tolerance of the Moors extended to the Jews. They had been in Toledo since Visigothic times but during the Moorish occupation they arrived in greater numbers and formed a prosperous community. Toledo is still known as The City of Three Cultures', Moorish, Christian and Hebrew.

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