by Victoria Jeffrey

Created on: February 24, 2009

Toledo is a very old city that has absorbed the cultures of great civilizations. 700 years ago when Toledo reached its golden age the city was truly a melting pot. The beautiful architecture of the city - castles, gates, bridges, churches and winding, narrow streets through the old city shows its rich heritage to those who want to explore this historic city and shows that Toledo was once one of Europe's most important cities; important for cultural and ecclesiastical reasons.

During the Middle Ages Toledo was divided into three quarters for the three distinct religious and ethnic cultures living in there: Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. Within each quarter the people were allowed to live according to their own customs and religious laws. Before the Middle Ages however, Celtic and Iberian people had built a town at this location. Later, the Romans came and conquered the ancient city and called it Toletum, from where we get its modern name. After the Roman empire fell, Visigoths conquered Spain and chose Toledo as the capital. In the 6th century A.D. the Visigothic King Reccared made a pivitol decision that made Spain the center of Orthodox Catholicism by rejecting Arian Christianity which was the traditional belief of the Visigoth nobles at that time in favor of the Trinitarian Catholicism of the Iberian and Roman populace. Eventually Toledo became the seat of power for the most powerful archbishop in Spain. It became a very important ecclesiatical city and the city was eventually purged of Arian Christians and their influence.

Things changed dramatically in the 8th century when it came under the control of the Islamic Caliphate. The narrow winding streetswe see today were built during this Islamic influenced period lasted for three centuries. Muslim tolerance allowed the peaceful co-existance of Christians, Jews and Muslims. When King Alfonso VI conquered the city in 1085 he continued the promotion of peaceful co-existance between these three cultures and the city continued to thrive in cultural influence and power.

The craftmanship, skills and talents of Catholics, Jews and Muslims created a flourishing, beautiful city and a European capital of learning. Scholars of all three cultures translated many works from Antiquity into Latin and Spanish. The vast store of Arabic scientific knowledge was also made available and had a great influence on the city thanks to translators from all three cultures. Toledo was also renowned for its production of iron, swords and other

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