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If you have only one day for an
excursion outside Madrid, go to Toledo -a place made special by its
Arab, Jewish, Christian, and even Roman and Visigothic elements. A
national landmark, the city that so inspired El Greco in the 16th
century has remained relatively unchanged. You can still stroll
through streets barely wide enough for a man and his donkey -much
less for an automobile.
Surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Tagus River, Toledo
stands atop a hill overlooking the arid plains of New Castile--a
natural fortress in the center of the Iberian Peninsula. It was a
logical choice for the capital of Spain, though it lost its
political status to Madrid in the 1500s. Toledo has remained the
country's religious center, as the seat of the Primate of Spain. |
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