Mezquita-Iglesia de El Salvador, Toledo
in Toledo, SpainCategory: Attraction
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Calle Rojas, 5, 45002 Toledo, Spain Print route »
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The Mezquita-Iglesia de El Salvador is a church in Toledo, Spain completed in 1159.Although the church is small, it is an exceptional building, because it was the site of 4 successive constructions, one on other and so on, It's a 12th-century church built on an 11th-century Taifa mosque, which was an expansion of a 9th-century Ummayad mosque and in turn on a Visigothic religious building. Also these civilizations reused 2nd-century Roman elements.
Have to say that is very-usually at the al-Andalus territory that Muslim liked to build on Visigothic buildings.
The large number of Visigothic decorative reliefs forming friezes and Roman cornices embedded in the walls is surprising.The current church is still oriented south-east, in the direction of Mecca. It survived to the conquest of Toledo by the Christian armies in 1085, to be turned into a church in 1159. One of the most characteristic elements of the church is a Visigothic pilaster, with intricate relief carvings.As a Christian church, from around 1180 to the late-15th century, it began to be used as a cemetery with anthropomorphic tombs, above which were placed more burials, in which some grave goods have been found.
