Alcázar over old Toledo - a photo on Flickriver

I found this image in archive of my previous travel to Spain. Accidently I didn’t include it in my Spanish set. Now I’m improving my mistake

The Alcázar of Toledo is a stone fortification located in the highest part of Toledo, Spain. Once used as a Roman palace in the 3rd century, it was restored under Alfonso VI and Alfonso X and renovated in 1535.
Under the Caliphate of Cordoba, Toledo enjoyed a golden age; it became a very large cosmopolitan city. This extensive period is known as La Convivencia, i.e. the co-existence of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Under Arab rule, Toledo was called Tulaytulah. After the fall of the Caliphate, Toledo was the capital city of one of the richest Taifas of Al-Andalus. Toledo took a central position in the struggles between the Muslim and Christian rulers of northern Spain. The conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Castile marked the first time a major city in Al-Andalus had fallen to Christian forces; it served to sharpen the religious aspect of the Christian reconquest. On May 25, 1085, Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo and established direct personal control over the Moorish city from which he had been exacting tribute, ending the medieval Taifa's Kingdom of Toledo. After Castilian conquest, Toledo continued to be a major cultural centre; its Arab libraries were not pillaged, and a tag-team translation centre was established in which books in Arabic would be translated from Arabic or Hebrew to Spanish by Arab and Jewish scholars, and from Spanish to Latin by Castilian scholars, thus letting long-lost knowledge spread through Christian Europe again. For some time during the 16th century, Toledo served as the capital city of Castile, and the city flourished. However, soon enough the Spanish court was moved, first to Valladolid and then to Madrid, thus letting the city's importance dwindle until the late 20th century, when it became the capital of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha...
Toledo's Alcázar (Arabicized Latin word for palace-castle) became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy...

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Taken on: May 27, 2009

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Sets appears in: • Through Spain

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Camera: Nikon D80, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, 52mm (=78mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D80
Lens:	18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	52mm (35mm equivalent: 78mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Unknown (-1)
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
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