Within Toledo’s annual cultural agenda, Lux Greco (the lights of El Greco) is a hugely popular event. The city puts on a fantastic show for two weekends – free of charge! – which entails the projection of a series of images onto three historic buildings: Puerta de Bisagra, Puerta del Cambrón and Teatro de Rojas.
The images are not just random sequential pictures, but they run like short 15-minute films, different in each of the three locations, depicting Toledo’s rich history and the life of one its most celebrated citizens, the renaissance painter El Greco.
The ‘screenings’ have an amazing 3-D effect, making you feel like you’re right in the middle of the battle scenes. The whole shebang is, of course, accompanied by a rousing sound track.
The picture above is the only one taken at Puerta de Bisagra, which turned out OK. My flimsy digi camera is crap in low light, and it didn’t exactly help that I was taking my snaps with one finger stuck in my right ear, because I was standing far too close to the speakers. Gave me really bad tinnitus the whole night 😦
Now moving on to one of Toledo’s other ancient town gates, La Puerta del Cambrón, where the photo crop proved much more fruitful:
And finally, some shots of Teatro de Rojas:
If you would like to see another post where Toledo does a funky thing with lights and buildings, click here.
Lady Of The Cakes 
How cool to see this. when I was in high school in California I was scheduled to give a speech on El Greco in my Spanish class. Spanish wasn’t easy for me and neither was giving speeches. Just weeks before my dad announced we were moving to Colorado. I prayed that we’d move before I had to give my speech. Our house sold in three days and you guessed it, I left the state days before I had to humiliate myself in Spanish class.
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LOL, that was a lucky escape! …with terrible consequences for your education, but we’ll draw a veil over that…
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I saw the ‘funky things with lights’ for the first time ever in Tours, France in 2003 – and actually hadn’t seen any since. I remember being totally awed, it was like something out of a Disney tale.
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It was pretty cool… nothing like that in Moscow?
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I was just thinking — Moscow needs to do this! They did one on some buildings near the Kremlin but it was incredibly ugly 😦
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Anna needs to talk this over with her friend Putin next time she gets hold of him 😉
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I will get right on that. Will pitch it during our weekly BBQ 😉
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@Polly – I dont see it working well on dark-red, flat brick walls. The advantage or Tours/Toledo etc, is the lime-stone facades, plus architectural details that add dramatic shadowing and make the whole thing pop. If anything this could work on Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but I do not see the ROC going for this.
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Next time, stick your finger in your left ear and see if they come out any better! Riga does a pretty nice job of this kind of stuff as well – Staro Riga. It’s usually freezing when it’s on though. Not for the faint-hearted!
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Freezing… that sounds good right now… we were sweltering. 32 degrees in the middle of the night. We were lucky to get splashed a bit by the street washers on our way between venues. Toledo has a gang of boys with big hoses, who wash down the streets every night. It’s the only way to keep the place clean, as it doesn’t rain very often.
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Roasting here as well, amazingly enough! Tempted to run through the sprinklers on the pitch where rugby was invented…I think they probably frown upon that sort of thing though. Mmm, boys with big hoses 😉
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I’ve promised someone I’d dance naked round the maypole when I got ‘home’ at the end of the week… I think we’ve got the beginnings of a new theme here. Our views will spike off the charts… probably to be followed by a mass “unfollow” movement.
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Actually, I’m sure plenty of people would like a post of you dancing naked around a maypole! I’ve seen the kind of weird shit people are into! This is mild in comparison!
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Well, David Cameron is going to put a stop to all that, the valiant trooper!
Because that will work. I’m sure of it.
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Like Expat Eye here, I couldn’t process anything past ‘gang of boys with big hoses’…
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They are out there …roaming the streets… EVERY NIGHT…!
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Waiting for the naked dancing around the maypole post 🙂 Great photos by the way
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I may have to borrow your …erm… very trendy suit for that!
Thanks 🙂
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You promised naked not almost naked
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I’ll need suitable attire to walk up to it…!
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You can borrow my suit. 🙂
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Ta 🙂
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This is an annual event in July? Spectacular photos. I may have to time my visit (one of these days) to coincide. My local city Durham does a Lindifarne Gospels light show in November. Much quieter (and colder, of course) but it’s every second year. Looking forward to Lumiere 2013. 🙂
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