:Alcázar of Toledo

{{Short description|Fortress in Toledo, Spain}}

{{See also|Alcazar (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox building

| name = Alcázar of Toledo

| image = FP Toledo Alcazar 2025 - Views.jpg

| image_size =

| image_alt = View of the Alcázar of Toledo

| image_caption = The Alcázar in 2025

| coordinates = {{coord|39.858084|-4.020631|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| architectural_style =

| address =

| years_built = 1936—1957

| groundbreaking_date =

| start_date =

| stop_date =

| topped_out_date =

| completion_date =

| opened_date =

| inauguration_date =

| relocated_date =

| renovation_date =

| closing_date =

| destruction_date =

| cost =

| owner =

| height = 59 m

| material =

| size =

| floor_count =

| floor_area =

| architect =

| architecture_firm =

| parking =

| public_transit =

| website =

| references =

| footnotes =

}}

The Alcázar of Toledo ({{langx|es|Alcázar de Toledo}}, {{IPA|es|alˈkaθaɾ ðe toˈleðo|IPA}}) is a stone fortification located in the highest part of Toledo, Spain. It is a large quadrangular building measuring 60 meters on a side, framed by four large towers 60 meters high, each crowned by the typical Madrid spire. Most of the building was rebuilt between 1939 and 1957 after the siege of the Alcázar during the Spanish Civil War.{{citation|author=VALLE SÁNCHEZ|title=La reconstrucción de Toledo tras la guerra civil, paso a paso|date=December 16, 2013|url=http://www.abc.es/toledo/20131215/abcp-reconstruccion-toledo-tras-guerra-20131215.html|publisher=ABC}}

History

Once used as a Roman palace in the 3rd century, it was turned into a fortress in the 10th century during the reign of Cordoba Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III.{{Cite web |title=Alcazar of Toledo: How This 3rd Century Palace Became an Icon of the Spanish Civil War |url=https://www.historyhit.com/locations/alcazar-of-toledo/ |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=History Hit |language=en-GB}} It was restored under Charles I (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and his son Philip II of Spain in the 1540s.Henry Kamen, Philip of Spain, (Yale University Press, 1999), 184-185. In 1521, Hernán Cortés was received by Charles I at the Alcázar, following Cortes' conquest of the Aztecs.Toledo and the New World in the Sixteenth Century, Javier Malagón-Barceló, The Americas, Vol. 20, No. 2 (October 1963), 124. The name is from Arabic al-qaṣr 'the castle' (ultimately, from Latin 'castrum').

Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War, Colonel José Moscardó Ituarte held the building against overwhelming Spanish Republican forces in the siege of the Alcázar. The incident became a central piece of Spanish Nationalist lore, especially the story of Moscardó's son Luis. The Republicans took 24-year-old Luis hostage, and demanded that the Alcázar be surrendered or they would kill him. After briefly speaking to his son on the phone to confirm this, Moscardó told Luis to, "Commend your soul to God, shout 'Viva España!' and die like a hero''.https://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/etd_hon_theses/38/ Cartwright-Punnett, Lynn, 2008 Wesleyan University p.20{{Cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.com/Memoria-Guerra-Civil-Mitos-Tribu-Libros/22550514337/bd|title=Memoria de La Guerra Civil: Los Mitos de La Tribu|last=Reig Tapia|first=Alberto|page=173|access-date=2018-02-22}}

Moscardó refused to surrender. Contemporary reports indicated that the Republicans then killed Moscardó's son. Other historians have reported that Luis was not in fact shot until a month later "in reprisal for an air raid".Thomas, p 311 The dramatic story also camouflages the fact that the fate of a number of male hostages, mainly from the Guardia Civil, taken into the Alcázar at the beginning of the siege is unclear. Some sources say the men "were never heard of again".Beevor, p122 However at least one journalist who visited the Alcázar in the immediate aftermath of the siege saw a number of prisoners chained to a railing in a cellar.Eby, p187

The events of the Spanish Civil War at the Alcázar made the structure a symbol for Spanish Nationalism and inspired the naming of El Alcázar, a far-right newspaper that began during the civil war and ended during the Spanish transition to democracy as the mouthpiece for Búnker, a faction of Francoists who opposed reform after Francisco Franco's death.

By the end of the siege, the building had been severely damaged. After the war, it was rebuilt. It now houses the [http://www.jccm.es/biblioclm Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090602011350/http://www.jccm.es/biblioclm/ |date=2009-06-02 }} ("Biblioteca Autonómica") and the Museum of the Army ("Museo del Ejército"), the latter having previously been housed in the Salón de Reinos in Madrid.

Gallery

File:Alcázar de Toledo (ca 1866), Casiano Alguacil (cropped).jpg|View of the Alcázar in 1866 by Casiano Alguacil

File:1887-01-15, La Ilustración Española y Americana, Entrevista del emperador Carlos V con Francisco Pizarro, en el alcázar de Toledo, Lizcano, Vela.jpg|"Interview of Emperor Charles V with Francisco Pizarro in the Alcázar", ca. 1887 by Ángel Lizcano Monedero

File:Staircase in the Alcazar of Toledo.jpg|Interior of the Alcázar in 1901, Jean Laurent

File:Women at the Siege of the Alcázar in Toledo - Google Art Project.jpg|Two women and a man at the siege of the Alcázar in Toledo, 1936

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2005-0601-500, Spanien, Himmlerbesucht die Burg von Toledo.jpg|Heinrich Himmler visits the Alcázar with José Moscardó in October 1940

File:Tent of Charles V, Army Museum, Toledo (Spain).jpg|Tent of Charles V, Army Museum

File:FP Toledo Alcazar 2025 - Courtyard.jpg|Inner courtyard in 2025

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • Cecil Eby, The Siege Of The Alcázar, 1965