Everything Toledo claims about itself is stacked inside this one small parish church, and almost nobody goes in.
The building stands on a mosque of the ninth century, which had its own minaret, and Toledo Monumental notes that its walls still hold fragments of late-Roman and Visigothic buildings. The mosque’s arcade survives inside: horseshoe arches on a collection of columns and capitals lifted from whatever was standing nearby three hundred years before — Roman shafts, Visigothic capitals, no two matching.
The object to find is the pilaster. It is a square carved pier of late-Roman or Visigothic date, decorated with four scenes from the life of Christ, and it was reused — placed in the arcade as a support, sideways, as building material. It is among the most important pieces of Visigothic-era sculpture in Spain and it is doing structural work in a mosque that became a church. If you want a single object that explains how this city was built, that is it.
Under the floor, excavations have exposed the Roman origins of the site, and the dig is part of the visit. Above ground the church picked up chapels through the Middle Ages and later; the Mudéjar and Gothic fittings sit on top of the Islamic arcade without any pretence that the two belong together.
Practically: it is on the Plaza del Salvador, about three minutes from Santo Tomé and four from the cathedral, on the natural line between the Jewish quarter and the centre. It is €4 on its own and is one of the seven monuments on the €14 wristband. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes.
The reason to put it high on your list is negative and useful: it is the only building of this quality in Toledo where you are likely to be alone. Everyone else is queuing at Santo Tomé, three streets away, for one painting.
