The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-17


is wholly lost. The once splendid Palace
of Caesar" has had as hard fate as
most of the crowned heads that have oc-
cupied it. Burned by the Dutch at the
beginning of the last century. and again
by the French at the beginning of this,
1t has since been degraded TO an aims
house a barrack and a stable. After the
war OF succession the good Cardinal Loren
zana, who devoted his whole life and in
come to charitable works, repaired the Al
cazar, converted IL into a casa de carida
and filled it with paupers, whom he en-
ployed at silk weaving. When Soulte's
army invaded Toledo they elected the pau
pers. confscated the funds Of the institu-
ton and stabbed their horses
in the former house Of
Kings; and when compelled to evacuate the
city they set fire to it as parting legacy.
Then it lay waste for many years. until at
length the rubbish was cleared away and
at enormous cost the building was con-
verted into military academy designed to
stand forever as the West Point of Spain.
in which a thousand cadets might be al
ways in training to officer the Spanish
| army. But the gods, or the ghosts of the
Moorish builders. seem to have harbored
special spite against the old palace, and
| again 1t was Quilted by fire. leaving little
but the bare walls and the four corner
towers and now Spain is too poor to re-
| build it. In the rooms overlooking the
Tagus the notorious widow of Philip Nv
was imprisoned during the minority of
Charles II As every reader of Spanish
history knows, she was first the tool Of the
low adventurer, Nithard, and afterwards OF
an equally despicable lover. Valenzueia.
Her mode of life has been graphically de-
scribed by Madame d'Aulay in a little book
which cannot be recommended as 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 a
stone fallen from the walls of some medi-
aeval home, and feast your eyes upon the
prospect Two thousand feet below on the
banks of the yellow Tagus. stood the earli-
est Roman city. Even from this elevation
You can plainly trace the outline of its an
cient amphitheater. If the gladiators who
fought in it were suddenly resurrected and
wished to prepare for combat. they would
few rods away stands the arsenal where
the famous Toledo blades were made. Time
was when this hilltop was completely COW
cred with palaces and converts, all Of
which have disappeared, or are fallen in
melancholy heaps of debris. AS if in mock
cry of departed greatness, the only build
ing of large proportions that is now fully
occupied is a lunatic asylum, whose in
mates, screaming from their barred win
dows. might be Infatuated specters 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 10 the golden days of the
Jews in Toledo, and are of the greatest in
terest as having been built during the DOM
ination of the Moors, under whose tolerant
rule the Hebrews enjoyed perfect freedom
and liberty of conscience They have, of
course. lost their original names. and, as
rechristened, are called. respectively, Ell
Transito and Santa Maria Blanca.
TWO JEWISH SANCTUARIES.
IL appearance that it is presumed they
were built by Moorish workmen, who were
acquainted with but one style of architec-
ture Santa Maria Blanca (''White Saint
Mary'). stands back in a little court and
outside its door are two small cisterns,
which afforded water for publication be-
fore entering the house of God. Its inter-
ior is divided into a number of imposing
naves by sweeping horseshoe arches. re-
semblng those of the Mosque of Cordova;
but it is a true Jewish sanctuary, being
ceiled with cedars of Lebanon, and the
ground on which it stands was covered
with the sacred dust of Palestine FL
Transito is much more magnificent 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 en-
joy his possessions The walls of Eel Transit
to, covered with appropriate He.
brew inscriptions, quotations from
the Scriptures and the Talmud.
are decorated with sunk patterns,
honey-comb cornice and engraiIed inches.
like the windows af the Giraldi at Seville
The superb ceiling, of Lebanon cedar.
carved and painted and curiously inlaid
ivory, is supported by coupled shafts of
colored marbles. Beneath the arcade q
broad band surrounded with exquisitely
carved foliage contains the arms of Leon
| and CASTLE, and is edged with the eighty
fourth Psalm in Hebrew characters On
posite the Holy of Holes is the gallery
for women, with its gilded lattices. behind
which they were concealed from the view
of male worshipers. according to the uni
versal custom of the east The two pull
pits of the rabbi are mere Sits i'm the walls
| twenty feet from the floor and entirely
| destitute of ornamentation. In 1894 Isabel
| gave FL Transito to the Catholic Order of
Calatrava; then the Holy of HOLES was con-
verted into an archive and the gallery of
| the Jewesses became a dwelling for the
| guardian OF the church. The exteriors of
both these old synagogues are very dfIapf-
dated and have suffered from so MANY
| coatinss of whitewash that the colors and
many OF the stucco designs have been quite
| obliterated All around are narrow streets
| TO this day Inhabited by none but Israel
| ties. Their houses are so small and so
| densely populated that they look more like
| rat holes than human habitations, but are
lc0f e.. H. .1~ -