Toledo טולדו
The centre of Jewish Spain under Christian rule: city of translators, of the Rosh, and of the road to Tortosa.
After Toledo's reconquest in 4845 the city became a crossroads of three cultures: its famous school of translators carried Arabic and Jewish science into Latin Europe, and it held one of the most influential Jewish communities in Spain, with court financiers, physicians and great synagogues, two of which still stand.
In 5065 Rabbeinu Asher — the Rosh — arrives here, fleeing Germany after the death of the Maharam of Rothenburg, bringing Ashkenazi methods into the Sephardi world; his son Yaakov writes the Arbaah Turim here, the framework of all later halacha.
The same city shows the reverse. In 5108 plague riots sweep Spain; in 5151 a wave of violence spreads from Seville to Toledo, and tens of thousands convert to survive. A generation later their descendants face the disputation of Tortosa, the Inquisition and the expulsion of 5252.