Toledo Cathedral

West facade and tower; the building is
so hemmed-in, Medieval-style, there is
no vantage point from which you can
see much more of the exterior than this

A last judgement in one of the chapels; the middle
right panel shows those going to hell (always our
favorite) including the very famous adulteress with
the flaming crotch

There was not enough light for the altar (and
windows were not their forte), so they cut a
big hole in the roof, then decorated it in massive
 Baroque style ("Baroque" is Italian for "way
over the top")

More of the ceiling hole decoration

In the Treasury, this is the 8 foot silver
and gold monster they parade around the
city annually for some sort of special
Eucharist

Central nave

Unicorn misericord in the choir; there were scores
of such secular and sometimes risque figures in the
misericord section (where you put your bottom
isn't holy)

The seat backs in the choir all had carvings depicting the
reconquista, the "liberation" of various Spanish towns and
cities, this one Salamanca; military historians, we read,
come to study these depictions to learn of the development
of arms and strategy

Here you can see the tiered nature of the choir seating...
misericordia, then the battle scenes, then famous Spanish
bishops, then figures from the Bible, specifically Christ's
ancestry

The altar, totally over the top (and a lot of
gold from Peru and Mexico, one assumes)

The Baroque organ; there was also a
neo-classical one...

Toledo Cathedral is billed as Spain's finest. It certainly was the most interesting we have seen here so far. One of the chapels holds 18 El Grecos plus many other masters, Spanish and Italian. The Treasury is small but studded with, um, treasures. The best part, for us, was the choir, which was hands-down the very best cathedral choir we have ever seen. I am sure we spent more time in this remarkable building than most infidels. Photography was not permitted, but guards were sparse and not particularly interested, everybody else was openly shooting pix and movies, so we indulged ourselves a bit too.