A Very Negative Place

Toledo, Spain, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was inhabited for hundreds of years by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who all lived together (each in their own quarter of the city) in relative harmony. Until that was screwed up by Ferdinand and Isabella when they forced everyone to either convert to Christianity or leave the country.

The cathedral in Toledo was built over three centuries, and so its architecture ranges (from left to right) from Gothic to Renaissance:


At the tourism entrance, you can go in for free and peer into the darkness to appreciate the stained glass windows, sculptures, and soaring ceilings. But before you do, check out this sign:


Which means absolutely no shushing other people, no tank tops covered in giant red dots, no bread-eating, no hat-tipping, and no phones made before 2005. And everyone must bring a large video camera and a film camera.

I especially liked the double negatives for the cameras, and the way the sign maker spent the whole budget on making sure the illustration styles harmonized.