The old city is located on a mountaintop with a 150 degrees view, surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Tagus River, and contains many historical sites, including the Alcazar, the cathedral (the primate church of Spain), and a central market place. The old city retains its charming medieval road plan.
The Cathedral in Toledo was built between 1226-1493. It is remarkable for its incorporation of light and features the Baroque altar called El Transparente, several stories high, with fantastic figures of stucco, paintings, bronze castings, and multiple colours of marble, a masterpiece of medieval mixed media by Narciso Tome topped by the daily effect for just a few minutes of a shaft of light from which this feature of the cathedral derives its name.
The Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, built between 1477-1504, in a remarkable combination of Gothic-Spanish-Flemish style.
Toledo was home to El Greco for the latter part of his life, and is the subject of some of his most famous paintings, including 'The Burial of the Count of Orgaz', exhibited in the Church of Santo Tome.
Toledo was famed for its production of iron and especially notable for swords and the city is still a centre for the manufacture of knives and other steel implements. When Philip II moved the royal court from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the old city went into a slow decline from which it never recovered.
The marzipan of Toledo is considered one of its finest food products.
