The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-17
ONCE CAPITAL OF SPAIN
TOLEDO, THE ANCIENT, ITS RELICS,
RUINS AND TRADITIONS.
Sights of n City Which Was Founded
Nearly Twenty Centuries Ago
Moors' Benefcent Reign.

wander for days amid these labrynthine
alleys, shut in by close, high walls, with
out gaining so good an idea of Toledo as
may be obtained in half an hour from the
highest point in the city. The ascent to the
Zion Of this Jerusalem is no more difficult
than any other of its steep and stony
streets. Passing through ''the gate of the
sum- to an open space Immediately above
the jutting escarpment, whose inaccessible
sides justify the Gothic founders in their
selection of site, you command view
of all within the walls as well as of the en-
circling hills and the wild and melancholy
Tagus winding for miles between jagged
cliffs. Sloping down from your feet on
every side are forts, and castles, and tow
ers, all so weird, so uniformly old and
hopelessly decayed that 1t is difficult to be-
lieve they can have anything to do with the
nineteenth century. And indeed many of
them have not For example, those Cy-
clopean ruins close at hand were once King
Wamba's palace, built in the year GA and
afterwards occupied by Roderick. From one
of its windows he beheld the lovely daugh-
ter of Count Julian, who had been intrusted
TO his care, while she was bathing in the
river, and then and there became possessed
with the fatal passion which led to the in
vasion of the Moors and the destruction
of the Gothic empire.
That blackened heap of stones Just be-
yond the bridge OF Alcantara, known as
''Galiana's Palace" is another monument
of bygone centuries, around which cluster
traditions which show that human nature
has been much the same in all the ages.
Princess Galiana was the beautiful daugh-
ter of King Golafre, who loved her beyond
anything else in the world and built her
palace compared with which the glories of
the Arabian Nights" paled into insignifi-
canoe. Hither endless lovers came a-woo-
ing and annoyed the princess dreadfully-
so the story goes. The most unwelcome of
all the enamored ones was Bradamant,
gigantic Moorish chieftain of hideous WIS.,
age, but incalculable wealth, who had an
underground passage tunneled at great ex-
pense all the way to Toledo from his
stronghold at Guadalajara, beyond the
mountains so that he might visit the prin-
cess every day.
LOVERS GRIM TOKEN.
At length Charlemagne the Great came
to assist King Golafre against Abderraha-
lodged in this palace, he straightway fell
in love with the beautiful Galiana. 1t hap
pened just in time to furnish climax to
the story. Bradamant, grown holder and
more importunate as his suit failed to
progress, stole secretly through the tunnel
one night, intending TO convey the princess
by force TO his stronghold. He met Charlie
mango instead, who had somehow got wind
of his intentions. A duel in the dark en-
sued. in which the gigantic Moor was slain.
Charlemange cut off his head and presented
it to the princess, who charmed
with the gift that she at once accepted the
hand of the giver, accompanied him to
France and was triumphantly crowned his
Queen.
The Spaniards of to-day incline to the
belief that Galiana was either myth, or
an infidel enchantress whose wiles neither
Christian nor Mosem could resist After her
departure, it is said, the celebrated King
Al-Mamun took possession of this palace
and retired to it in his intervals Of leisure,
to study the heavens and prosecute scienti-
fic researches in company with the wise
men of his court. To later Arabs it was
known as 1.-The Mansion of the Hours,
because of wonderful clepsydra, or water
clock constituted in it's garden by the as
trologer, Az-Zarkal. This consisted of two
tanks, placed at right angles to each other,
and so contrived. by complicated system
of subterranean pipes and cisterns, that
| they accurately measured time according
| TO the phases of the moon. After Alfonso
VI had appropriated the palace, an in
| quisitive Jew, wishing to discover the Sc
| cret of the clepsydra's mechanism, obtained
permission to examine its interior arrange
ment He took the machinery apart, but
was unable to put it together again; and
| thus in few hours destroyed one of the
| greatest curiosities that human ingenuity
had ever invented. The Persian wheel that
raised the water and was propelled by a
| sluice, stood between the Tagus and the
main entrance to the palace; and less than
fifty years ago its original piers were still
in use for irrigating purposes.
A PALACE OF WONDERS
Fragments of masonry and half-buried
| walls cropping up in all directions indicate
| that Galianas's palace must have been of
far greater extent than the portion now
standing would lead one to suppose. The
gossiping Moorish chroniclers never weary
of relating it's wonders. They tell us that
| in King Golafre's day there was a lake in
| the center of the grounds, and in the mid
| die of the lake an island, and in the heart
| of the island summer house, constructed
| entirely of stained glass. covered with
golden and jeweled inscriptions. Foun-
tains were set all around it, arranged
| that the water could be turned on at will
| from inside, when their sprays played over
and completely enveloped the house, cut
| ting it off from the outer world until the
| master chose to press the button which
| stopped the flow of water. Here, cooled
/ by the artificial cascade, whose drops re-
| fracted the rays of the sun and displayed
| the softened hues of the rainbow through
| its transparent roof, the monarch took his
siesta, reclining upon damask cushions,
/ tanned by female slaves-the very imper-
| sonation OF sensual luxury. 1t is sad to see
/ that what is left of the Mansion of the
| Hours is now stable. its elegant Moorish
| windows walled up, its artesonado ceiling
| fallen in-but their mosaics yet glow like
| jewels amid the filth that covers them
Soldiers have occupied ii, Dutch. French
Portuguese and English and for many years
its noble reception hall served as a bar
rack kitchen But though SCOT and CRIME
have married its graceful arabesques, they