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The first-time visitor to Toledo cannot help be struck by the city as a whole, impregnated as it is with such a weight of history and wealth of culture. The town, perched on a hill skirted by a sharp bend in the River Tagus, has remained almost unaltered since the end of the Middle Ages, surrounded by curtain walls and formed by a winding maze of alleyways and lanes that meander up and down, crisscrossing and revealing, to the visitor its historical sights and secret corners. Toledo is a city to be explored on foot, time and time again, following itineraries that lead to the artistic and cultural high spots, and losing oneself among the nooks and crannies of its tangled web.
A ramble taking in Toledo's main streets and sights might well end at the Cambrón Gate. Known in olden times as the "Gate of the Jews" owing to its proximity to the Jewish Quarter, its present name comes from a thorny species of plant, the cambronera (hawthorn), which grows nearby. Though subsequently altered, this construction is Moorish in origin, having a central quadrangle and four massy square towers; through it came wayfarers and merchandise arriving from the west, and at nightfall its heavy iron gates would clang shut at the chime of the Cathedral bell. |
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