Province Province of Toledo | Phone +34 925 04 09 05 | |
 | ||
Address Plaza el Salvador, S/N, 45002 Toledo, Spain Similar Iglesia de Santo Tomé - Tol, Santa María la Blanca, Iglesia de San Román - T, Iglesia de Santiago del Arrab, Monastery of San Juan de l | ||
The Mezquita-Iglesia de El Salvador is a church in Toledo, Spain. It was in the days of the Moslem presence, a mosque, a date to be determined, although several researchers date it at the 9th century.
Previous remains of Visigothic ecclesiastical occupation and even of a Late Roman period of the 2nd century have been found.
It initially was a mosque and it is therefore oriented south-east, in the direction of Mecca. It survived the conquest of Toledo by Christian armies in 1085, to be turned into a church in 1159. One of the most characteristic elements of the church is a Visigothic pilaster, with intricate relief carvings.
History and description
The Iglesia de El Salvador is located in the city of Toledo, near the Churches of Santo Tomé and Convento de Santa Úrsula. It is one of the churches named in the Lazarillo de Tormes and in it were baptized Joanna of Castile ("the Mad") and the playwright Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla.
The current church is built on an old Muslim mosque, so it is oriented southeast, towards Mecca. For which construction, as was usual, different Visigothic architectural elements were reused, thanks to which a horseshoe arcade supported on Visigothic pilasters has been preserved with sculpted decoration of figurative themes, unusual in this type of remains. The Pilaster of El Salvador, presents on one of its faces various miraculous scenes from the life of Jesus, in overlapping records: the Cure of the Blind, the Resurrection of Lazarus, the Samaritan and the Hemorroísa, as well as other themes of eucharistic hue that allude To Christ as salvation and whose iconography seems to be taken up from some Early Christianity sarcophagus that could serve as a model. Its crude treatment shows the abandonment in which the work had fallen on the stone.
Although it conserves the figure of the minaret, that carries incrustations of borders, the conversion to the cult in 1159 made it undergo several modifications, especially, the construction of the Gothic chapel of Santa Catalina, of the end of 15th century. In the minaret, converted into a tower, a brick belfry would later be added.
It is dedicated to Saitn Savior. The church suffered a fire in the 15th century, which forced its total renovation. It will be Álvarez de Toledo who is in charge of its reconstruction.