The Church of St Leocadia (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Iglesia de Santa Leocadia'') is a medieval church located in Toledo, in Castile-La Mancha,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

History

Toledan tradition maintains that this church was built on the site of the house where Saint Leocadia of Toledo was born. This house supposedly had a small underground room, where it is affirmed that she prayed. This cave corresponds to the crypt located next to the right pillar of the presbytery and is covered with a plaster rib vault, which can be dated to the first half of the 16th century. Both the present church and the tower are in the Toledan variant of the

Mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...

style and are datable, in their older parts, to the end of the 13th century. However, there is reason to assume that there existed an earlier building. The parish of "Santa Leocadia within Toledo" (see note) is mentioned in documents from the middle of the 12th century. In the tower and on the façade of the church are preserved, embedded, some fragments of reliefs in

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

style. There are only references to think that the primitive arrangement was that of an isolated building, separated from the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo by a street that was suppressed, in times of

Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Ger ...

, when extending that convent.

Notes

:1.The denomination "within Toledo" differentiates it from another church, with the same name, "next to the alcázar", built in the place where the saint was in prison, and the basilica outside the city walls, known as Cristo de la Vega, where she was buried.

References

External links

{{Tourism in Toledo Toledo Toledo Roman Catholic churches in Toledo, Spain Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the City of Toledo