Somehow, all those who come to Toledo, either for the first time or letting themselves be seduced by its melancholic charm, recognize and also make their own, those objective words of the German writer and poet, Rainer María Rilke, about its capital of forgotten empires.
It does not matter how much time has elapsed, nor does it matter how modern is expanding and intruding, more and more, like the necrosis that accompanies cancer, in a city that oozes the past through each and every one of its legendary streets.
Toledo, badly despite the urban speculator, who sees, not without some frustration, how his expectations of harassment and demolition continually crash against the solid pillars of its privileged and, of course, deserved status as a World Heritage City, continues to be, even for something as primordial as Art, an empire of beauty and subordinate mysteries, of the first magnitude.
Above all, in such a special place, where this interesting marriage between beauty and mystery is so closely related, that it would be difficult to pass by without voluntarily being seduced by such an irresistible attraction: its cathedral.
The Primada Cathedral of Toledo is not only one of the largest and most spectacular in Spain, but also one of the richest, in terms of cultural treasures, which make it a magisterial emporium of wisdom and knowledge, that, still, after centuries, continues to exercise, quietly but effectively, a subjective magistery, which goes beyond a simple admiration: the Transparent.
The Transparent, possibly his most masterful and elegant piece, the one that rises above the crypt where the relics of Santa Leocadia rest, is that immeasurable masterpiece, which, carried out in the 17th century by the then substitute architect of the cathedral, Narciso Tomé and which, with great probability, will replace the old ambulatory, also serves as an essential cicerone who presides over, a few meters away, two of the most monumental chapels - that of Santiago, where the mortal remains of the famous Don Álvaro de Luna- and that of San Ildefonso, without forgetting another meritorious artistic milestone, such as the beautiful Chapter House, the vision of whose wonderful frescoes is recommended.
Conceived in the manner of a colossal double-body altarpiece, this work, made with marble directly imported from Genoa, jasper and bronze, is also one of the most important pieces of Spanish Baroque art.
Although it follows the guidelines of the exuberant and overloaded style that characterized, in particular, Churriguera's works -and which, precisely for this reason, the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer found especially burdensome- his observation is still a visual spectacle of the first order. , where the most relevant episodes of the Bible and the New Testament come together, to take the viewer on a metaphorical 'spiritual cruise', which, far from allowing abandonment to indolent passivity, tests their knowledge and puts their guard on guard. imagination, also imitating other universal details, such as the famous oculus that the Italian sculptor Bernini made, ex-profeso, for the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome.
In short: a genius of geniuses, which make the Primada Cathedral of Toledo a five-star destination, within the reach of the most demanding and sophisticated cultural palates and which, furthermore, constitutes another of the innumerable attractions of a city, which, on the other hand, it could be considered, by default and merit, as an Empire of World Culture.
RELATED MOVIE:
NOTICE: Both the text and the photographs that accompany it, as well as the video that illustrates it, are my exclusive intellectual property and, therefore, are subject to my Copyright.
