History of Toledo

Although there are competing legends about the founding and the first king of what is today called Toledo - some legends speak of Hercules and others even speak of Adam - it is not possible to specify the era in which the area was inhabited. What is known is that excavations carried out show that it was an important Celtic-Iberian city and capital of Carpetani. In 192 B.C., it was taken by the Roman Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who built Toletum on its ruins. Witnesses to the Roman presence include the remains of a circus, an amphitheatre and a bridge.

From the 5th century, the Barbaric, Alani and Visigoth people successively conquered the city. In 569, Atanagildo installed his Court in Toledo which became the capital of the Hispano-Gothic kingdom with King Leovigildo, reaching an important religious, political and legislative dimension. This period also saw the important conversion of Recaredo to Catholicism at the 3rd Council of Toledo.

In 711, the Moors conquered Toledo, now called Tulaytulan, and the city lost its key role.

In the 11th century, Alfonso VI led the successful Christian Reconquista of the city. This king made Toledo an example of tolerance and peaceful coexistence between the different cultures: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.

During the kingdom of Alfonso X, Toledo became the intellectual centre of Europe with the establishment of the famous School of Translators to which western culture owes its translations of the works of Arab and Jewish thinkers into Latin and Spanish - as well as the treasures of Greek thought and knowledge.

Beginning in the 14th century, the peaceful coexistence of the three cultures disappeared progressively and during the kingdom of the Catholic Monarchs, the Jews were expelled and the Inquisition courts established.

The Court, which moved around the country according to the needs of the moment, settled in Toledo several times and during the kingdom of Charles I, after the defeat of the comuneros, armed opponents to the regime who rejected imperial policies, the city became the Seat of the Empire. This was an era of splendour, until Philip II transferred the capital of the Court to Madrid for good in 1563.

The consequential loss of political power that Toledo experienced and the beginning of a notable decline in the city did coincide, however, with the activity carried out by one of the painters who most faithfully captured the atmosphere of the city: el Greco.

The 17th century returned a bit of prosperity to the city with the Enlightenment, which brought economic recovery to the area, thanks to the Company of Factories and Commerce and the Factory of Arms and also a drive by Cardinal Lorenzana to teach trades to the lazy and poor population, but the following century brought ruin to Toledo again and the wars of Succession and Independence left their destructive traces.

During the 19th century, Toledo experienced solid development with the inauguration of the railroad, the supply of water and electrical power plants on the shore of the Tagus River. During the Civil War (1936-1939), Toledo was in Republican hands and Franco besieged the Alcazar fortress in order to rescue prisoners; the building remains a ruin.