Toledo Spanish City

Toledo, a renowned but decayed city of Spain, 38 miles S.S.W. of Madrid. It is situated on a group of seven granite hills, 2,400 feet above the sea. Towards the N the only side on which it is not surrounded by the Tagus, there are inner and outer stone walls, dating respectively from the 7th and 12th centuries, both of which contain several handsome old gates, The houses which line the steep, silent, and gloomy streets are mostly Moorish in style, dating from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, The magnificent cathedral, mainly Spanish Gothic with a semicircular apse, contains some beautiful Flemish stained glass of the 16th century, and the numerous side-chapels are very elaborately ornamented. The Alcazar, the ancient palace of the Gothic kings, rebuilt by Charles V. and Philip II., was burned down in 1887. The manufacture of the famous Toledo swords is still carried on a short distance to the N.W. Toledo, the Roman Toletum, was the capital of the Visigothic sovereigns. It was occupied by the Saracens and Moors from 714 to 1085, when it became the capital of Castile and Leon,