Travel Tips

Toledo Cathedral was built on the site originally occupied by the church consecrated in 578, in the time of Recaredo, and later by tbe Moslem mosque which, during the Reconquest was transformed into a church. As this was aging and becoming out of step with the town's development, the buildig of the present Catbedral commenced, when Don Rodrigo Xim‚nez de Rada was Archbishop. The King St. Ferdinand and the Archbishop laid tbe first stone in 1226 when, apparently, work had already begun. During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, wben Don Pedro González de Mendoza was Archbishop of Toledo, the last vaults were closed in. In 1238 tbe 15 chapels of tbe apse aisle were completed and in 1247 the Chapel of St. Eugene was finished. The transept was completed around 1300, for the northern gable wall and the Clock Gate appear to be of tbis period. Nevertheless, construction work continued during the following two centuries.

Toledo Cathedral is one of the largest in the Christian world. As far as Gothic is concerned, it is surpassed only by the cathedrals of Seville and Milan. It has five naves, but its transept does not project outwards, as is the case of Notre Dame of Paris and Bourges Cathedral.
Toledo Cathedral, 120 metres long and 59 wide, must be viewed from the interior, where its grandeur may be appreciated, as the narrow streets of Toledo do not afford a sufflciently broad perspective of its exterior. The roof; which in the central nave reaches a height of 44.50 metres, is held up by 88 columns. The Cathedral receives its light through more than 750 stained glass windows, from the l4th, 15 th and l6th centuries, the work of the best artists of those times.