Tag Archives: carpetania

Toledo: El Greco’s new home

old map of spanish regions, cadiz, carpetania, cantabria

Three Antique Maps of Carpetania, Cantabria and the Bay of Cadiz, 1584

This is a set of three maps showing three regions of Spain: Cadiz Bay, an important harbour in the 16th century, a region covering the eastern coast of the Bay of Biscay in the far north of Spain and the ancient region of Carpetania (an area approximately south of Madrid, in the middle of the Taugus river basin). The city of Toledo is also included in the bottom-left corner of the Carpetania map. At the time this map was first printed, Toledo was home to the famous Greek painter, sculptor and architect Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known in the art world as El Greco. Originally from Crete (part of the Venetian Republic at that time), he had lived in Rome and Venice before settling down in Toledo, where he spent half of his life and created most of his fine art works. “El Greco” by D. Davies, J.H. Elliott, X. Bray and K. Christiansen is a fantastic introduction into both his artwork and his personal life.