Jewish Quarter, Toledo

Most if not all of the old towns and cities we've visited have had Jewish quarters. These were mostly vacated after 1492, the momentous year when Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille 

• united their kingdoms, thus founding what became the nation of Spain;
  
• commissioned the first voyage of Columbus;
  
• expelled the Spanish Jews who had refused to convert to Christianity -- Juden raus!

Toledo does a better job than any other Spanish city of commemorating its Jewish heritage. Photos after the jump.

There are two main Jewish sites in Toledo. One is the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca, which was converted into a Christian church in the 15th century. Note how similar the decor is to that of a mosque.

-- Which makes sense, considering that Sephardic Jews (the branch of Jewry that settled in Spain) come from the same Middle Eastern cultural matrix as Arabs.

I'd never seen anything like the capitals on the columns, though:

The decor of the Synagogue of El Tránsito is similar except for the scalloped arches:

Such a beautiful wall...

Such a beautiful portion of a wall...

Such beautiful tools of circumcision...