Things to do
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Alcántara Bridge
Two stone arches over the Tagus on the east side of town, on Roman foundations, with a gate tower at the town end. From the railway station it is the natural way in: cross here and climb into the old town. The castle of San Servando stands on the bluff above the far bank.
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Alcázar of Toledo
A square fortress with four corner towers on the highest point of the city, rebuilt after the Civil War siege and now home to the Army Museum. The collection is large, so pick a few rooms. The regional library on the top floor has a café with a wide view over the rooftops. The museum closes on Mondays.
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Church of San Ildefonso
A white Baroque Jesuit church on one of the highest points of the old town. Go for the two towers: stairs climb into the belfries, and from the top the cathedral, the Alcázar and the river bend sit all around. Entry is ticketed and the stairs are steep, but the climb is short. It is one of the seven sights on the combined wristband.
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Church of Santo Tomé
A small Mudéjar church with a brick tower, visited for a single painting: El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which fills one wall of a side chapel. El Greco painted the Toledo noblemen of his own day as the mourners. The room is small and the queue builds by late morning, so come early. Entry is ticketed.
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El Greco Museum
A reconstructed house and garden in the Jewish quarter, close to where El Greco lived, hung with his late series of the apostles and his View and Plan of Toledo, which shows the city as he mapped it. The garden is a quiet place to sit. Like the other state museums in town, it closes on Mondays.
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Hospital de Tavera
A Renaissance hospital just outside the walls, north of the Puerta de Bisagra, with a double patio, a domed church and the founding cardinal's marble tomb. The family apartments keep paintings by El Greco and Ribera and an old pharmacy. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and it sees far fewer visitors than the sights inside the walls.
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Jewish Quarter
The western end of the old town, where the medieval Jewish community lived, now holds both surviving synagogues, the El Greco Museum and San Juan de los Reyes. Small ceramic tiles set into the paving mark its streets. Walk it in the morning, when the lanes are quiet and the light falls on the river below.
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Mirador del Valle
A lookout on the far bank of the Tagus, on the ring road south of the town, with the whole old town spread across its hill: the cathedral, the Alcázar and the walls above the gorge. Go at sunset, when the stone turns gold. It is a long walk from the centre, so most visitors come by taxi or the tourist train.
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Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes
Ferdinand and Isabella built this Franciscan monastery at the western edge of the old town, and their badges cover the church inside. The two-storey cloister, with its carved upper gallery and orange trees, is the reason to come. On the outside walls hang iron chains taken from Christian captives freed in the war for Granada.
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Mosque of Cristo de la Luz
A tiny brick mosque from the end of the tenth century, nine bays under nine different ribbed domes, with a later church apse added to one side. The whole visit takes twenty minutes. Climb up into the small garden behind it for a view over the Puerta del Sol and the walls.
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Museo de Santa Cruz
A Renaissance hospital just below the Plaza de Zocodover, built in the shape of a cross, with a carved stone doorway and a two-storey patio. Its galleries hold El Greco's Assumption, Flemish tapestries and a large collection of the region's painted ceramics. It is rarely crowded and suits the hottest hours of a summer afternoon.
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Plaza de Zocodover
The main square of the old town, three-sided and arcaded, with café terraces, the arch down to the Museo de Santa Cruz and the stop for city buses and the tourist train. Marzipan, the town's sweet, is sold in the shops around it. The square is busy all day and calmest early in the morning.
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Puerta de Bisagra
The main gate of the walled city, on the north side facing the road from Madrid, with a huge stone double-headed eagle of Charles V over the arch and two round towers behind it. Walk through into the old town here, or take the escalators that climb the hillside a few minutes to the east.
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Puerta del Sol
A Mudéjar gate tower of brick and stone on the climb from the Puerta de Bisagra to Zocodover, with a horseshoe arch and a carved medallion over it. It stands on the main uphill route, so most walks from the north pass under it. The Mosque of Cristo de la Luz is a short way up the lane beside it.
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Puy du Fou España
A history theme park a short drive south of the town, built around large live shows with horses, falconry and staged battles rather than rides. The night show, El Sueño de Toledo, runs through Spanish history on a huge outdoor stage. The park opens from March to early January, and the night show and summer dates should be booked ahead.
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San Martín Bridge
A medieval stone bridge of five arches spanning the Tagus below the Jewish quarter, with fortified gate towers at either end. Cross it for the view back up to San Juan de los Reyes, and look downstream for the zip line strung across the gorge. It is free to walk at any hour and floodlit after dark.
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Santo Domingo el Antiguo
A convent of enclosed nuns in the north of the old town, where El Greco took his first Toledo commission and where he is buried in the crypt. The altarpieces he designed still stand in the church, though most of his canvases in them are now copies. A small museum shows the nuns' treasures. Opening hours are short, so check before walking up.
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Synagogue of El Tránsito
A fourteenth-century synagogue whose prayer hall keeps its carved cedar ceiling and walls of stucco lettering in Hebrew and Arabic. The Sephardic Museum fills the rooms around it with the story of Spain's Jews, their expulsion and the communities they founded abroad. It is closed on Mondays, and the women's gallery upstairs gives the best view of the hall.
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Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca
Rows of white horseshoe arches on octagonal pillars, with carved plaster capitals of pine cones, fill a plain building in the Jewish quarter. It was built as a synagogue in the twelfth century and later served as a church. A visit takes half an hour and is covered by the city's combined monument wristband.
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Toledo Cathedral
Allow an hour at least for the Gothic cathedral at the centre of the old town. Behind the high altar, the Transparente is a Baroque altarpiece lit through a hole cut in the vault, and the sacristy hangs a whole room of El Greco. Entry is ticketed, through the Puerta Llana, and on Sunday the visit opens only in the afternoon.
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Windmills of Consuegra
A row of white windmills along a bare ridge above the La Mancha plain, beside a restored castle, about an hour's drive south of Toledo. Several mills can be entered, and one still grinds on the saffron festival weekend in late October. Go by car, since buses are few, and come for the late afternoon light.
