The interior of the cathedral is stunning, among the world's best in my opinion. There's plenty to keep you occupied here, with a couple dozen chapels off the main church, each wildly decorated and with lots of history. There are lots of kings and cardinals buried here, an intricately carved choir (pictured) and a gothic extravaganza behind the altar, telling the entire story of the New Testament if you have the patience to read the story that stretches all the way to the ceiling.



One historical oddity is the Capilla Mozarabe. After the Roman empire fell, the various barbarian tribes began to develop their own versions of Christianity and way of worshipping in church. In 1086, the popes decided to stamp out all these variations and force everyone to adopt one standard church service. Toledo had just been reconquered from the Moors, and its citizens were in no mood to jettison their "Visigoth mass" in favor of the new Roman variety. They revolted, and the church decided to settle the matter the old fashioned way, through the two types of bibles in a fire and see what happens. As it turned out, the Roman bible was carried out of the fire by a gust of wind, while the Visigoth bible stayed in the fire but never burned. So the contest was declared a tie, and both rites were allowed to be conducted, but only in Toledo Cathedral.

The Capilla Mozarabe in a small corner of the cathedral still conducts this Visigoth mass, the only service other than the Roman rite still allowed by the Catholic church. Pretty much nobody attends other than the priest, but in general today's Spain has one of the lowest church attendance rates in the world, pretty surprising considering its hyperreligious history.

Returning to my earlier post about The Great Escape, this is Toledo's Cathedral, one of Spain's greatest religious buildings. Even though Toledo has long ceased to have any political significance, it's still the seat of Spain's Catholic Church, presumably because the cardinal isn't blind and realizes this church is many times more beautiful than its Madrid counterpart. Construction started in 1227, and took 250 years to complete. One difficulty with this building is it's completely embedded in the city, with other buildings pushing right up against the cathedral's walls. There's a small plaza in front of the facade that gives a bit of room for a photo, but we're still working with our old camera, which couldn't handle the challenge, hence the internet photos here.