Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes

The passed by a few of the interesting buildings here in the Historic City of Toledo but a lot of them didn’t seem to be open. I remember the person at the tourism center at the train station mentioned that there were a few which were not open. That was a shame, but at least I didn’t need to purchase any visitor pass to see the sights here. There synagogues which serve as a reminder of the Jewish presence here in Toledo. The synagogue wasn’t open either. There was yet another church but it wasn’t open. I’m beginning to think that they aren’t open because it was Holy Week. Anyway, I decided to keep on walking. I walked until I found my way into an open area were a large church looking structure. This was the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes or the Monastery of Saint John of the Kings.

The monastery here is quite imposing considering that it is a monastery. The monastery was founded by the king of Spain to celebrate their victory over the Portuguese. This was an interesting way to celebrate a victory, anyway, the monastery was built in Toledo since it was at the center of Spain and that Toledo was already a former capital. The monastery at the time of my visit was closed like a lot of other places. I really think this was because it was Holy Week. There were some fences set up by the police. I assume that this was in preparation for an upcoming Holy Week activity. I didn’t really have time to wait all day to find out whethere something will be happening that day. I spotted a group of Korean tourists who were undoubtedly off to see something interesting. So I followed them.

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