After finding the Casa/Museo de El Greco closed due to construction, we ventured just around the corner to the Sinagoga del Tránsito & Museo Sefardi.
Near the museum is where the judería (Jewish Quarter) was once located before they were expulsed from Spain in 1492 by the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela as part of the Reconquista of Spain in the name of Christianity.
The Sinagoga del Tránsito is one of two remaining synagogues located in Toledo. Its construction dates to 1335 when Pedro I gave special permission to have it built (at that time it was prohibited to build synagogues in Christian Spain).
From 1492 until 1877, the building served as a priory, hermitage and military barracks, but today it houses the Museo Sefardi, a museum which traces the history of Jewish culture in Spain.
Because of the influence of El Greco in Toledo, there is also a museum (Museo de El Greco) with a number of the artist's works, including Vista y Plano de Toledo.
However, as we unfortunately learned (again, after the Casa de Lope de Vega), you should always call in advance to make sure that the museum is running on its normal hours of operation.
As you can see, after we navegated through the city's winding streets, we arrived at what would have been the Museo de El Greco to find that it had not been open in a year or so due to its being extensively renovated. Maybe some other day...
Next on our list of El Greco paintings to see was to go to the Iglesia de Santo Tomé, where El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz (The Burial of the Count of Orgaz) is located. This painting depicts the funeral of the Count of Orgaz who was buried in 1322; supposedly, Saints Augustine and Stephen descended from heaven to attend the event. El Greco's work adds certain anachronistic guests to his work such as Cervantes, his son, as well as himself.
One of the main reasons that we decided to spend the day in Toledo was to be able to see some of El Greco's paintings that are scattered throughout the city. First on our to-do list of the "El Greco Trail" was to go to the Monasterio de Santo Domingo El Antiguo, one of the oldest convents in Toledo.
Dating to the 11th century, the building houses a number of El Greco's earlier works. Although most are just copies of the originals, the monastery's hightlight is the opportunity to see the artist's crypt and wooden coffin through the slats of an iron grating.
Here are a couple of examples of El Greco's work inside the museum portion of Monasterio de Santo Domingo El Antiguo.
Seeing as how we were used to the flatlands of Sevilla, it was especially entertaining to use the pedestrian escalators to "climb" to the top of the big hill on which Toledo is nestled. You gotta love that kind of exercise!
As we ventured into the city from the train station, we found ourselves at the Puerta Nueva de Bisagra (1550), part of the old city walls bearing the coat of arms of King Carlos I of Spain (also known as Carlos V of the Holy Roman Empire).
The next morning, we took a short train ride to Toledo, a city known for its artistic legacy, inherited from its former Roman, Jewish, and Muslim inhabitants, which visible in the city's architecture in addition to its cultural values in general.
Originally during the 15th century, Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun) served as the eastern gate of the city, from which the roads led to the suburbs outside of the city limits.
As in the past, Puerta del Sol is still one of the busiest places in Madrid as it is literally a crossroads, the center (km 0) of all of the roads in the nation's capital. Since people are always in a hurry to go somewhere, on foot, by metro, or bus, it is always one of the most famous places for pickpockets to hang out. Luckily, we were able to make it out with all of our possessions still intact!
Up until 1790, Madrid's Plaza Mayor was once the scene of the famous autos-de-fe during the Spanish Inquisition in which people who were considered to be "heretics" were executed via burnings at the stake, death by garrote, hangings, etc.
Now, however, it serves the purpose of any typical Spanish plaza, a common meeting point for madrileños to congregate and pass the time, seated at one of the outdoor tables at the terrazas or sprawled out on the cobblestones to soak up the sun.
Here, just in time for the Eurocopa and the patriotic pride in the national soccer team, the wrought-iron balconies are decorated with Spanish flags. ¡Viva Torres!
As we were walking back to our hostel, we climbed to the top of the Viaducto de Segovia, a huge bridge towering 23 meters which extends Calle Bailen in Madrid.
As you can see from this picture, the bridge is pretty high up, which might explain why so many have taken advantage of the bridge to commit suicide by leaping to their death. Because there have been several incidents of this nature, the government installed a series of panels of clear plexiglass, making it impossible for anyone to climb over the railing.
Because Brian has tons more map skills than I ever dreamed of, he was always in charge of getting us from point A to point B with the maps. Here he is with the Lonely Planet after we finished at the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida trying to find our way back to our hostel.
The Lonely Planet describes the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida as one of Madrid's most surprising secrets. This seemingly humble hermitage from the outside also houses the Panteón de Goya, which consists of two chapels where it is possible to see a Goya in its original setting. These paintings in particular were done at the request of Carlos IV in 1798.
Another point of interest inside the hermitage is that the painter himself was buried in front of the altar. Although he died in Bourdeaux, France in 1828 due to self-imposed exile, his remains were brought to Madrid in 1919. The only strange thing was that there was something missing from the skeleton - the head. Hmmm....
Our first full day in Madrid, we opted to start off our museum frenzy with the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Acclaimed as one of the most extensive private collections of predominantly European art, the museum is the legacy of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, a German-Hungarian art connousieur, which boasts of a wide array of artistic styles ranging from Medieval times to more contemporary paintings.
The beauty of the museum is that there are examples of artwork by all of the big names in Europe housed all under the same roof.
Here is the blurp by wikipedia describing some of the highlights of the museum:
"One of the focal points is the early European painting, with a major collection of trecento and quattrocento (i.e. 14th and 15th century) Italian paintings by Duccio, and his contemporaries, and works of the early Flemish and Dutch painters like Jan Van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Holbein. Other highlights include works by the most famous Renaissance and Baroque painters, including Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, Caravaggio, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo, Rembrandt and Frans Hals and wonderful portraits by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Vittore Carpaccio. Also important for the Museum's collection are Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by artists like Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh, as well as twentieth century masterpieces like a Cubist work by Picasso or late works by Piet Mondrian and Edward Hopper."
While we were there, we were lucky in that the temporary exhibit was about Miró, a contemporary Spanish artist from the twentieth century who is known for his use of vibrant colors to depict objects in a primitive fashion, creating paintings that have the appearance that they could have been created from the perspective of a child.
For other art aficcionados out there, here is the link to the virtual tour of the musem.
This building is where Spain's lower house of parliament is housed. Conveniently enough, it was just up the street from our hostel, so we got to see a lot of fancy cars and the such associated with the government.
Ok, so call me a big dork (and Brian the poor guy who is patient enough to put up with me), but the first thing that I wanted to see once we got to Madrid was the neighborhood where a number of famous Spanish authors lived and died, the Barrio de las letras.
It is here where the famous playwright Lope de Vega lived and wrote for 25 years until he died in 1635. The house was later restored in 1935 by the Real Academia Española and filled with memorabilia related to his life and works.
Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for Brian), the house was temporarily closed to visitors while we were in Madrid.
The next morning, we left Sevilla to spend a few days in Madrid. Since the AVE train is so economical, we bought tickets to Madrid's train station, Atocha, which is where this picture was taken (inside the building, of course).
After finding the Casa/Museo de El Greco closed due to construction, we ventured just around the corner to the Sinagoga del Tránsito & Museo Sefardi.
