The Bite Magazine Issue 17

T he beautiful city of Toledo in central Spain isn’t just known for being an ancient place set on a hill above the plains of Castilla-La Mancha, today a World Heritage Site, but also for its medieval Arab, Jewish and Chris- tian monuments in the walled old city. For this very reason, it was named the ‘city of three cultures’ due to the three diverse groups co-existing together for centuries. With an artistic and cultural legacy of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues, Toledo main- tains a great sense of history that would surely go on for many more years.Within this city, you’ll find the Puerta de Bisagra Nueva (The New Bisagra Gate) which is of Moorish origin but had its main part built in 1559 by Alonso de Covarrubias. It carries the coat of arms of the emperor Charles V and superseded the 10 th -cen- tury-built Puerta de Bisagra Antigua Gate (also known as Puerta de Alfonso VI), as the main entrance to the city. Puerto del Sol is another city gate that was built in the 14 th century by the Knights Hospitaller and has a medallion above the arch of the gate that depicts the ordination of the Visigothic Ildephon- sus, Toledo’s patron saint. Probably the oldest gate of the city, the Puerta Bab al-Mardum (otherwise known as Puerta de Valmardón) was built in the 10 th century.The name ‘mardum’ is Arabic for ‘blocked up’ which could be the reason why its function was taken over by the Puerta del Sol Gate, while the Spanish name ‘Valmardón’ is a rough, phonetic imitation of the Arabic. Mezquita Bab al-Mardum is another name given to the nearby Mosque of Cristo de la Luz, a former mosque that remains pretty much in the same state as it was when it was first built in 999. It can be found in the narrow streets of Toledo near the Puerta del Sol, in an area once called Medina where wealthy Muslims once lived. Char- acterised by a mixture of artistic styles, the mosque is a copy of the Mosque at Córdoba and is an unusual building with a square floor plan covered by nine caliphal vaults which had a Romanesque-Mudejar sanctuary added to it in the 12 th century. City of the Three Cultures bite travel