Our next stop with the convenient and easy to use Toledo Tourist bracelet was the Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue. I get the synagogue part of the name, and, as you can see from the photos below, the "blanca" (white), but I don't get the Santa Maria part.
According to Wikipedia, it is considered to be the oldest synagogue building in Europe that is still standing. Constructed by Muslim craftsmen, the carvings and arches are pure Mudejar style.
Although, as Javi points out, there really isn't a difference between Mudejar and Moorish/Muslim, because it's not like multiple styles from two or three religions were blended together.
Built during the 12th and/or 13th centuries, it may have been built within a previously existing mosque. Built after the Reconquista of Toledo, it was sacked during the pogroms of 1391, and consecrated as a Christian church. It was later used as a military barracks and a warehouse.
In 2013 the Jewish community of Toledo requested that the Catholic Archbishop of Toledo to transfer ownership back to them as a symbolic gesture and it is presently a museum.
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