A city like Toledo, even served in small portions, can cause that metaphorical psychic embarrassment, which thanks to one of the most notable writers of German Romanticism, almost all Art lovers in general have come to experience, and that psychologists termed as Stendhal syndrome.

Letting ourselves be carried away by it, it would not be superfluous, at all, to add that in Spain and more specifically in cities like Toledo, part of that biblical diaspora developed, which made the Hebrew people a worthy heir to the legendary history of the wandering Jew.

I will not go into assessing part of that marginality, which was made clear at its culminating point with the expulsions promoted by the Catholic Monarchs, nor will I comment on the modern diplomatic attempts to restore nationality to the descendants of those unfortunate Sephardim, who mourned their expulsion. as they say the last Moorish king of Granada wept.

But I will say, if necessary, that if those had the opportunity to see again through the empty sockets of their anonymous and forgotten skulls, these places that they once occupied, they would possibly be surprised to find them little less than the same as the they met in life.

That is the charm of the Jewish Quarter of Toledo and that, after all, is enough guarantee to seriously consider the possibility of sightseeing, walking along the paths of a History wrapped in the unfinished mists of a chaotic and mysterious past, which seems reborn at every turn of the corner.

It is true, on the other hand, that for centuries the sacred texts of the Torah have not been pronounced in the synagogues and that they do not know any other influx than the visit of a tourism that is increasingly interested and sporadic admiration of some Art lovers, who dream of the old Kabbalistic mysticism, because not in vain Toledo, like his alma mater, the Czech Prague, were authentic commissions and recipients, not only of the great schools of translators, but also of knowledge that surpasses the imagination and always encourages to speculate with the crudest of fantasies.

The lover of the Occult and the lover of the book will always find in these alleys, places that inspire them, in the same way that they inspired writers like Arturo Pérez Reverte and directors like Roman Polansky, looking, precisely in these streets, part of the scenarios of a plot, where the unusual thing would be not to put Toledo in the Axis Mundi of Kabbalah, Magic and Tradition.

Because Toledo is also a battlefield in the eternal fight between Good and Evil, as shown by the name of some of its most surprising places, such as the Pasaje del Ángel or the significant alleys of the Devil and of Hell that, A curious thing, they stand near the Houses of the Templars, which still stand, centuries after they were convicted of heresy and their leaders executed at the stake, on the Parisian Ile de la Cité.

I hope that this walk through the crossroads of the Jewish quarter of Toledo has not left you indifferent and who knows, if you ever have the opportunity to see them with your own eyes, you will also find some rewarding adventure that will make you remember, that sometimes, fiction is much more truthful than reality.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and therefore are subject to my Copyright.