Gezicht op Toledo met op de voorgrond de Taag c. 1880 - 1898

Casiano Alguacil captured this view of Toledo with the Tagus River in the foreground in a photograph taken in 1898. Dominating the composition is the bridge, a potent symbol of connection and transition. Bridges have long held symbolic weight, from the Roman pontifices, who were bridge-builders and priests, to the medieval notion of the bridge as a link between the earthly and the divine. Think of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, a conduit for commerce and community, or even the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, heavy with the weight of human drama. Here, the solid stone of the bridge contrasts with the flowing water, an age-old symbol of change and the passage of time. The city itself, perched atop the hill, speaks to human ambition, an echo of the Tower of Babel, forever reaching for the heavens. Consider how these symbols – the bridge, the water, the city on a hill – resonate across cultures and centuries, constantly re-emerging, each time imbued with the ever-shifting anxieties and aspirations of humankind.