The Puerta del Cambrón
As almost all the doors of the city it has a very ancient origin, dating back to its origins possibly to the Visigoth era. Probably the Door of the Cambrón is the one that in medieval documents is mentioned with the name of Door of the Jews, favoring this supposition its proximity to the toledana Jewry. The vox pópuli baptized the monument with its known name as a result of the growth of some brambles, called cambroneras, autochthonous of its surroundings.
In 1571 the building underwent a reconstruction, being red-baptize with the name of Door of Santa Leocadia, but the popular tradition did not forget its habitual denomination. In this restoration, different materials taken from the nearby Muslim cemetery of La Vega were reused, and an image of the patron saint presiding over the interior façade was placed.
If the Puente de Alcántara was the toll point for travelers arriving from the north, the Puerta del Cambrón was for those arriving from the west and the Montes de Toledo, being its warden the Marqués de Montemayor for hereditary rights. An inscription almost identical to another from the Puente de Alcántara confirms the collection function of the door.
This is not the only affinity that resembles the Bridge and the Gate, since they were also governed by the same schedule, their doors being opened when the Concepción bells rang at dawn, and closed at dusk, with the Ave Maria touch Cathedral. In 1936 it was seriously damaged when it suffered a fire, damage that was later recovered.
Source: Jesús-José Cerdeño Vozmediano
