The caves
The so-called caves are a series of brick galleries that were located on the site that the Marquis de la Vega Inclán acquired to complete his project of the Casa y Museo del Greco. Its historical interest relies on being the only preserved part of the palace that Samuel Levi, treasurer of Pedro I, built in the Jewish quarter in the middle of the 14th century. Distributed over several floors, two of them excavated, these vaulted galleries could constitute the basement and semi-basement of the palace. In the axiometry of Arroyo Palomeque from 1720, a palatial-style building appears in this area, the façade of which seems to correspond to the ruins that artists such as Genaro Pérez Villaamil, Cecilio Pizarro and Librado reflected in their works at the end of the 19th century. These ruins seem to have been detached sometime before 1905, exposing the current cave entrance.
The palace was built above ground level giving the building more height and making it a visual reference for the Jewish quarter and the city. In addition, a series of warehouses and a ritual bath were installed in it, and have been excavated recently.
The palace and the caves awakened the popular imagination from the beginning of its construction until it was reduced to ruins. The caves became a reference for different legends and literary stories in the city of Toledo due to the evocative capacity of its underground spaces.
Apart from the caves, the house that develops around the courtyard of the Museum is also a historical house, surely from the 16th or 17th century, which keeps the memory of the old Jewish quarter of Toledo. We maintain the original plasterwork, coffered ceiling and general structure of this historic house. Between 1905 and 1910 the Marquis de la Vega Inclán and the architect Eladio Laredo included a tile plinth, two columns and two wells to the original courtyard.
