Indian Chief Travel Guides

El Greco’s Toledo

Born Doménikos Theotokópoulos in Crete in 1541, the famed painter who came to be known as El Greco (the Greek) spent his greatest working years in Toledo. From 1585 on El Greco lived in the medieval palace of the Marqués de Villena, since destroyed, from which he worked continually under commissions for the churches and monasteries of the region until his death in 1614. The artist’s great works (those that have not been spirited away by the Prado in Madrid) are scattered in museums and churches throughout Toledo. El Greco lies entombed in the church of Santo Domingo El Antiguo on the Plaza de Santo Domingo el Antiguo, for which he earned his first commission in Spain and which resulted in his work The Assumption of the Virgin (1577-1579). The Museo de Santa Cruz, at C/ Cervantes 3, is a museum of archeology, local crafts and fine arts that includes a series of El Greco’s works.