Toledo's Jesuit Church was the largest church we visited by using our Church-O-Rama wristbands. It's prominently located on an elevated part of Toledo's hill, and can be picked out from a distance by looking for its distinctive gray dome and twin bell towers.

It's also the newest of the churches we were to visit, having been completed in 1765 after 150 years of labor and expense and a succession of architects. The church's builders, the Jesuits, were undoubtedly relieved that their church was finally done, and began making proper use of it. Unfortunately, within two years they were expelled from Spain and their new church was taken over by the Spanish crown.

The Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, was founded in 1534 by a Basque nobleman named Ignatius of Loyola, along with six followers, in a crypt beneath the Church of St. Denis in the Montmarte area of Paris (they were all students at the University of Paris). They travelled to Rome to ask for official recognition of their new order from Pope Paul III, and they received papal approval in 1540. These were the days of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church's reaction to the rise of Protestantism, and the Jesuits extolled the virtues of Catholicism to the masses by establishing schools throughout Europe, in which students were taught theology and classical studies by highly-trained instructors. This approach wasn't uniformly successful, but was effective in the Poland-Lithuania area and in southern Germany. They also eventually sent missionaries throughout the world, including places like Africa, Japan and India, and to the North and (especially) South Americas, to keep colonists Catholic and to create converts among the native population. The first Jesuit missionary to Asia was one of the original group of seven, Francis Xavier, who headquartered in Goa, which was then the capital of Portuguese India. In the New World, other missionaries participated in explorations (the explorers Marquette and Jolliett were Jesuits) and even founded cities (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil, for example). Jesuit missionaries proved to be experts in linguistics, printing numerous dictionaries of newly-encountered languages, and their assistance was indispensable in opening and maintaining diplomatic communication with foreign governments and populations. As of 1622, the Catholic establishment was well satisfied with the efforts of the Jesuits, making Ignatius and Francis Xavier (both thoroughly dead by this time) into saints.

As the efforts of the Jesuits spread, the order acquired increasing political influence, as well as wealth and property. In retrospect it was probably just a matter of time before some of the European monarchies started feeling threatened by this increasingly powerful organization operating within their boundaries, whose interests were sometimes contrary to their own. One example of this contrariness was the Jesuits' opposition to enslavement of the native population in South America, and the physical protection of groups of them from capture. In the 18th Century, European monarchies began to expel Jesuits, mostly on thin pretexts, beginning with Portugal in 1759. France followed in 1764, and Spain and its empire followed suit in 1767. In each case the Jesuits' considerable assets were seized by the government. Ultimately only Russia (thanks to Catherine the Great), Prussia (ditto to Frederick the Great) and eventually the United States existed as refuges for the Jesuits, with the order itself being delegitimized by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. In 1814, with the Napoleonic Wars coming to an apparent end (and the 1773 monarchs having been replaced by new ones), Pope Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus to the Catholic Church. The restoration of the order to the various countries from which it had been banned was a longer process (they weren't restored to Switzerland until 1973), but it eventually became re-established throughout Europe, and even reacquired some of its assets.

When the Jesuits were expelled from Spain in 1867, the new Jesuit Church in Toledo was taken over by the Toledo archbishopric, but it wasn't immediately clear what would be done with it. There was a tentative plan in 1770 to demolish it, but fortunately a use for the church was found, that of the new parish church of San Juan Bautista, replacing the parish's old damaged church. This caused a name change for the church – the Jesuits had named it for San Ildefonso, a 7th Century Visigothic bishop of Toledo. The Jesuits were invited back to Spain in 1815 but did not get their church back. Instead, they suffered from persecution and from subsequent temporary expulsions until the 20th Century, when they were reinstated for good. At this time they also got their church back, renaming it back in honor of San Ildefonso. A restoration was done on the church between 1996 and 2003, and it now looks to be in pretty good shape. But apparently the Jesuits aren't practicing in Toledo anymore, due to reduced membership in the order, having relocated their Toledo membership to Madrid in 2011.

The most obvious feature on entering the church is the main altarpiece, on which are depicted San Ildefonso, plus figures of angels and Sts. Ignatius and Francis Xavier. But the altarpiece isn't an altarpiece at all – it's a trompe l'oeil fresco which gives the illusion of columns and a framework that aren't really there. The illusion isn't particularly convincing, but the use of perspective is impressive nonetheless. But there is a real tabernacle in the middle of the main chapel, plus real figures of additional angels, Mary and Joseph on the sides. Originally the founders of the church, the Manrique family, were to be buried prominently in the main chapel, but architectural changes moved their tombs to smaller chapels at the ends of the main chapel.




The remainder of the ground level has pretty much followed the apparently standard Catholic strategy with churches of this size – it's been loaded up with chapels along the left and right walls. Being a Jesuit church, there are chapels devoted to St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier.

Here are some of the other chapels:





Upstairs, at the end opposite the main chapel, is a choir with pipe organ. One can climb a stairway to go up and get the bird's-eye view.




With the church being tall and situated where it is, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the view from the roof is pretty good. Fortunately, a visit to the roof is included in the price of admission. Nella and Philip weren't really interested – they were pretty tired from the day's exertions (Nella's energy may also have been lagging for another reason, which would become obvious the following day). So it was left to me to go up and see what might be the best view in town. And as it turned out, I pretty much had the roof to myself.






I climbed back down from the roof and found Nella and Philip, and we left the church. We headed in the general direction of the Alcázar, to see what might be of interest there. Nella decided to rest in the Plaza Zocodover while Philip and I investigated.

A defensive fortification of some sort has been at the present site of the Alcázar since at least the Bronze Age. The present building was rebuilt after the Spanish Civil War, when the previous building was destroyed in a famous siege in the summer of 1936. During this siege, Nationalist forces held the Alcázar while being bombarded repeatedly by Republican forces. The siege ended when Francisco Franco's Nationalist Army of Africa arrived and chased the Republican forces away. This was a big symbolic victory for the Nationalist forces, and in retrospect can be considered a tactical blunder by the Republican forces, whose two-month siege of a minimally strategic target tied up 8000 soldiers who could have been far more useful elsewhere. Regardless, the new building is very nice and houses an Army Museum, which has many displays of military items from throughout Spanish history. It also has a no-photography rule, so unfortunately there isn't much to show you here.


From the Alcázar we walked past Plaza Zocodover to an overlook from which we could see the part of Toledo north of the Old Town. Then, to save our energy (and our feet), we found a bus which took us back to our hotel. On the way, we could see some of the fortifications along the northern boundary of the Old Town. We resolved to get a closer look the following morning.