RECENT IMPRESSIONS OF SPAIN 27 



main part of the city by a winding road past the wall and 

 the Alcazar or citadel, which is now a military training school 

 — the West Point of Spain. This bridge, as might be surmised 

 from its Arabic name, goes back to the time of the Moors. 

 The lower Bridge of St. Martin is further down the river 

 at the other end of the city and has a romantic story con- 

 nected with it. The architect who first planned the bridge 

 had nearly completed it ; the wooden scaffolding was still in 

 position and the arches were about to be finished. On going 

 over his calculations he discovered that his bridge would 

 not be strong enough to bear the weight, and that when 

 the king, court, and clergy passed over it the arches would 

 fall. He was wild with despair and confided his discovery 

 and grief to his wife. In the dead of night, while the city 

 was all asleep, the devoted wife crept down to the water's 

 edge and set fire to the scaflfolding which supported the cen- 

 tering. When the whole bridge fell the people and court 

 attributed the calamity to the fire. The architect remodelled 

 his plans and the bridge was built again, and has stood firm 

 and true ever since. When it was finished the wife publicly 

 confessed her doings to Archbishop Tenorio, but instead of 

 making her husband pay the expenses of rebuilding the bridge, 

 he complimented him on the treasure that he possessed in 

 such a wife. 



The Cathedral of Toledo is, of course, the great centre 

 of attraction and its history dates back as far as 587. St. 

 Ildefonso was one of its early archbishops (A. D. 667) and 

 a national hero of Spain. The Moors conquered the city in 

 the year 700. In 712 they turned the great church into their 

 Masjid-al-djami, or chief mosque, and held it for 300 years. 

 When Alfonso VI captured the city in 1085 he permitted the 

 Moors to retain it for Moslem worship. But in a year or so 

 dissensions broke out between the Moslems and the Chris- 

 tians, and in 1087 the Christians took forcible possession of 

 the building and turned it into a church again. St. Ferdinand 

 (Ferdinand III) caused the old building to be torn down and 

 in 1227 laid the foundation stone for the present cathedral. 

 It was completed in 1493, the year after the discovery of 

 America. After the taking of the city from the Moors, the 

 Archbishop of Toledo was made the Primate of Spain, and 

 it has been the primatial See ever since. The Court which 



