The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-09

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ments at later dates, it presents an odd
conglomeration of architectural styles
in which the original design is wholly
lost The once splendid Palace of Gaze
sar" has had as hard a fate as most Of
the crowned heads that have occupied
1t, Burned by the Dutch at the begin
ming of the last century, ana again by
the French al the beginning of this it
has since been degraded to an aims
house, a barrack and a stable After
the war Of succession the good Cardinal
Lorenzana, who devoted his whole life
| and income to charitable works, re-
| paired the AlcaZar. converted it into d
Casa de Caridas and filled it with pau
pers, whom he employed at silk-weav-
ing. When SouItes' army invaded Tole-
do they elected the paupers, confisoated
the funds Of the institution and stabbed
their horses in. the former house of
kings; and when compelled to evacuate
| the city they set fire to 1t as a parting
| legacy Then it lay waste for many
years until at length the rubbish was
| cleared away and at enormous cost the
building was converted into military
| academy, designed to stand forever as
the West Point of Spain, in which a
thousand cadets might be always in
| training to officers of the Spanish army
But the gods, or the ghosts of the Moor
| ish builders, seem to have harbored
special spite against the old palace, and
| again it was Quilted by fire, leaving lit
| tie but the bare walls and the four cor
ner towers; and now Spain ia too poor
to rebuild it. In the rooms overlooking
the Tagus the notorious widow of Phil
ip " was imprisoned during the minor
ity of Charles II. AS every reader Of
Spanish history knows, she was first the
tool of the low adventurer, rNithard, and
afterwards of an equally despicable low
er, Valenzuela. Her mode of life has
been graphically described by Madame
d Aulay in a little book which cannot be
recommended an family reading.
From the Alcazar you move with slow
steps, for the view is too enhancing to
be passed in haste. Perhaps you sit
upon stone. fallen from the walls of
some medieval home, and feast your
eyes upon the prospect. Two thousand
feet below, on the banks Of the yellow
Tagus, stood the earliest Roman city
Even from this elevation you can plain
ly trace the outline of it's ancient am
phitheater If the gladiators who
fought in it We're suddenly resurrected
and wished to prepare for combat they
would not have far to go for weapons,
for only few rods away stands the ar
senal where the fomous Toledo blades
are made. Time was when this hilltop
was completely covered with palaces
and converts, all of which have disap-
peared, or are fallen in melancholy
heaps of debris. AS if in mockery of
departed greatness. the only building of
large proportions that is now fully occu-
pied is lunatic asylum, whose inmates,
screaming from their barred windows.
might be Infatuated spectres of once
proud Toledons. bewailing what is gone
forever.
Not far from the Alcazar a little way
down the eastern slope of the hill and
close to the ramparts, are two curious
synagOgues one erected about the year
1850, and the other three centuries later
They belong to the golden days of the
Jews in Toledo, and are of the greatest
interest as having been built during the
dominion of the Moors under whose
tolerant rule the Hebrews enjoyed per- |
feet freedom and liberty of conscience.
They have of course lost their original
names, and as rechristened are called |
respectively FL Transito and Santa Ma
ria Blanca. Both buildings are so
much like mosques in appearance that |
it is presumed they We're built by Moor |
ish workmen, who were acquainted |
with but one style of architecture. |
Santa Maria Blanca ("White Saint |
Mary') stands back in little court |
and outside its door are tow small els
terms, which afforded water for purif-
cation before entering the house of God
It's interior is divided into a number Of
naves by sweeping horse shoe
arches, resembling those of the Mosque
of CordOva; but it is a true Jewish
being circled with cedars of |
and the ground on which it
stands was covered with the sacred dust
Of Palestine. Eel Transito is much more
1t was built and presented
to his countrymen by Samuel Levi, the
wealthy merchant-Jew who became the
treasurer of Pedro the Cruel, and after
years of faithful service to his royal
master was tortured and put to death,
so that the wicked king could enjoy his
possessions, The walls of Ell Transito,
covered with appropriate Hebrew in
quotations from the Scrip
lures and the Talmud, are decorated
with sunk patterns. honeycomb cornice
and engrailed nitches, like the windows
IF the Giralda at Seville. The superb
selling, of Lebanon cedar, carved and
painted and curiously inlaid with tor
.oiSe-shell, mother of-pearl and ivory, is
by coupled shafts of colored
marbles. Beneath the arcade a broad
)and surrounded with exquisite carved I
oliage contains the arms Of Leon and
CASTLE, and is edged with the eighty
ourth Psalm in, Hebrew characters
Opposite the Holy of HOLES is the gal
cry for women, with it's gilded lattices
behind which they were concealed from
riew of male Worsflippers, according to !
he universal custom of the east The s
wo pulpits of the rabbis are mere Sits
n the walls twenty feet from the floor {
nd entirely destitute of ornamental ton. !
n 1854 Isabel gave Ell Transito to the
catholic order of Calatrava; then the !
oly of HOLES was converted into an t
rchive and the gallery of the Jewesses /
eCame a dwelling for the guardian of {
he church. The exteriors of both these /
Id synagOgues are very dilapidated and e
ave suffered from so many coatngs of q
,hitewash that the colors and many Of