Tour Guide, Toledo, Spain
| 4 mins read
Toledo Next morning, in Toledo, I meet Almudena Cencerrado, my guide from the Toledo tourist office. I've been to the city twice before, and fell in love with it both times, but it is so dense it feels like a different destination every time. Half the fun is getting hopelessly lost in its labyrinthine backstreets. However this time I want to find out a bit more about Toledo's rich history, and I could hardly have found a better person to show me round. Almudena is an art historian, and the best way to see Toledo is through the eyes of its greatest artist, El Greco. Ironically for an artist who's become synonymous with Spain, El Greco (as his name suggests) wasn't Spanish at all, but Greek. He was born in Crete in 1541, and studied in Italy under Titian. From Italy he was invited to Toledo, to paint a brand new chapel in the Convent of Santo Domingo de Antiguo, and it's in this chapel, at the top of the old town, that we begin our tour. El Greco's paintings are a strange mixture of Byzantine and Renaissance, but this exotic blend of primitive and modern proved a perfect fit for Toledo. El Greco's art was sophisticated yet elemental, a lot like Spain. He also had the good luck to arrive here during Toledo's cultural and economic heyday. There was a huge demand for religious art, and plenty of cash to spend. El Greco never left Toledo. He spent the rest of his life here, and rather than all being crowded into one museum, his dreamlike paintings remain scattered around the places where he painted them. Tracking them all down is a great way to see the city. Our next stop is the church of Santo Tomé, which houses one of El Greco's greatest paintings, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. It's a dazzling display, full of intense portraits, framed by a surreal view of heaven, closer to Picasso than Velásquez. It's incredible to think it's 400 years old. Until the 16th century, Toledo was the Spanish capital, and it remains Spain's religious capital to this day. Its crowning glory is its cathedral, which contains one of the most amazing rooms in western art. The sacristy is like a miniature Prado Museum, with paintings by Caravaggio, Goya, Raphael, Rubens, Titian and Van Dyck, plus more than a dozen El Grecos, all squeezed into one small room. "It's really modern," says Almudena, pointing out a penetrating portrait of St Peter. "Look how he portrays suffering." The picture of St Luke beside it is actually a self-portrait. El Greco was born on St Luke's Day. We wind up our city tour in the Hospital de Tavera. This is a mansion, not a hospital, and it's one of the architectural highlights of the city, with a palatial courtyard, a precious library, an old apothecary and a spooky crypt. It's the only El Greco site that's outside the city walls, so you get a good view of the old town from here. El Greco painted his classic cityscape from the tower. There are several El Grecos in here, including the last picture he ever painted (he died before he could finish it) but my favourite is his Sagrada Familia, a tender depiction of the Holy Family with El Greco as Joseph, his wife as Mary and his son as Baby Jesus. "As you get to know El Greco, you love him more and more," says Almudena. "Toledo is the door to La Mancha," says Almudena, before we say goodbye, and though I'm on my return journey to Madrid, I wish I was headed back across La Mancha to Cuenca.