CATHEDRAL OF TOLEDO

Toledo Cathedral was built on the site originally occupied by the church consecrated in 578, in the time of Recaredo, and later by tbe Moslem mosque which, during the Reconquest was transformed into a church. As this was aging and becoming out of step with the town's development, the buildig of the present Catbedral commenced, when Don Rodrigo Xim‚nez de Rada was Archbishop. The King St. Ferdinand and the Archbishop laid tbe first stone in 1226 when, apparently, work had already begun. During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, wben Don Pedro González de Mendoza was Archbishop of Toledo, the last vaults were closed in. In 1238 tbe 15 chapels of tbe apse aisle were completed and in 1247 the Chapel of St. Eugene was finished. The transept was completed around 1300, for the northern gable wall and the Clock Gate appear to be of tbis period. Nevertheless, construction work continued during the following two centuries.

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