The Alcázar of Toledo

It is a Toledo symbolic building that has grown at the same time as the town, having its oldest origins in Roman times. It is located on a hill, being its location an important strategic point, developing different functions through the years.

It has a square floor and a central courtyard also square with angular towers.

The facade shows its great horizontality, with three bodies, that are finished off by a balustrade. The reconstruction of the Alcázar has changed the original apparence of the building in a necessary way and this fact is reflected in its four facades, belonging each of them to a different architectural style. One of them is Renaissance, another one is Plateresque, the Western one is Medieval with large fortified towers and battlemented defence, and the Southern one is Churrigueresque, erected according to Juan de Herrera´ s design.

It was Carlos V´ s royal residence and became a state prison in 1643. It was tranfered to the cardinal Lorenzana by Carlos III.

After the reform that he entrusted to the architect Ventura Rodríguez, its rooms became the head office of the Royal Charity. In the central courtyard stands a copy of the sculpture of Carlos V by Leoni. At the bottom of this courtyard there is a beautiful staircase by Herrera Villalpando.

Nowadays it houses the headquarters of the Museo del Ejército (Museum of Army), where you can find different types of arms, objects and military documents from different times, collections of tin soldiers or the scale model of the appearance in ruins of the Alcazar after the Civil War.