Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish CapitalLynch, Hannah
History
Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish Capital
Lynch, Hannah
Toledo (Spain) -- Description and travel; Toledo (Spain) -- History
brought it to the village of La Guardia. At Passiontide, they met at a
grotto outside La Guardia, and submitted the baby to a repetition of the
insults and outrages Christ had endured; then lanced him, tore out his
heart, and buried the little body. The child's mother was blind, and at
this instant miraculously recovered her sight. Not content with this,
they bribed a recently converted Jew, Juan Gomez, to steal a host,
paying him thirty reals for the sacrilege, and sent him off with the
child's heart to Zamora. Thus the crime was traced to Juan Gomez, who,
opening his prayer-book in the cathedral of Avila, on his return,
attracted attention by the wonderful projection of bright rays from the
leaves. He was instantly seized, examined, papers were found on him, and
he and the gang of Jewish torturers of babies were burnt by the
Inquisition.
This charming little temple was built for Levi by the Jew, D. Meir
Abdeli, a rabbi to whom an elaborate Hebrew inscription on one wall does
honour as a man of transcendent virtue. The architecture is _Morisco_.
Slowly the restorers are unveiling the admirably-wrought stucco walls,
where the sculpture is as fine and delicate as the most exquisite lace,
and has lain for centuries under a degrading coat of whitewash. You must
mount the high scaffolding with lighted wax or lamp, and here you may
examine at your leisure the inexhaustible delights of the
Moorish-Andalusian style in its most florid period. The prodigality of
ornament is as amazing as the Gothic wealth of sculpture of San Juan de
los Reyes, but I confess this pleases far more. It is much more
charming, more fairy-like, with that delicately-sensual note which forms
the eternal witchery of the East. The friezes are magnificent, and
nothing could be prettier than the effect of the semi-horseshoe windows
and their frail pillars and arches. Above the famous Hebrew
inscriptions, quotations from the Psalms mostly, run a row of arches,
highly decorated, resting on slim columns fancifully wrought. Here the
extreme elegance of design and finish touches upon preciosity. The
Moorish windows are most lovely, perfect little poems in stone, of a
marvellous fragility and grace. From their dainty lines and traceries,
you look in stupor up at the massive _artesonado_ ceiling, with its
geometrical figures, its infinitude of design carven in heavy
wood--blurred, it is true, and brutally defaced by time and neglect.
Here and there the woodwork is discoloured, here and there hopelessly
degraded; but some notion of its pristine magnificence may be gathered
even yet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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