The historical space that the city of Toledo represents is in fact an accumulation of contributions over time, ever since its creation as a city and given its almost natural wall-enclosed location thanks to the Tagus River. Defensive supports were created in the northern part of the city to protect the northern plains that led to the fertile croplands of what was to become the city's food supply market.

This said and done, at the time of the city's Muslim occupation around the year 930 the city was extended with the creation of the wall and Bab Saqra Gate (Alfonso VI Gate). Bab Saqra more or less means "passage to the orchards" and this was where vineyards and cereal crops and olive groves were to be found.

Curiously enough the Muslims maintained the vineyards during their occupation, reason being that the majority of the population was Christian, hence being allowed to consume and trade with their crops by means of the taxes that burdened their profits, although quite a few Muslins also partook of wine (Omar Kallhan was known to have said "my kingdom for a fine glass of wine").

Almost a thousand years ago the Santiago del Arrabal Church was constructed within the Arab walls, perhaps originally representing the Rabad Mosque according to the city district maps dating from the 10 th Century (Rabad meaning in this case the current farm, reminiscent of farms, orchards and croplands) and it was precisely close to the mosques that the "alhóndigas" (markets) were organized with their permanent stands and also with smaller traveling trade stands.

Therefore, it was in the permanent stands, usually found alongside the buildings close to the mosque in the shape of plazas or small "zocos" (markets), where many inns and taverns (at the time taverns were not only places where wine was consumed and sold, but also small stores that sold meat, fish, smoked products, etc.) were to be found. The taverns of the time arose from the Roman "tabarnae" and they were small commercial meeting points found at the entrances to cities. Only the Muslims copied this type of trade, as was likewise the case with so many other Roman things they imitated.

Hence vineyards and spaces where wine was enjoyed and commercialized already existed in Muslim times, instance that gave rise to the sense of the Imperial City as a referent of the wine trade, the same also likewise attributable to its great population and its position as the key center of power at the time, reason why the legislation on taxes (diezmos) was applied in the shape of control at the door to the inns and shops, or in the spaces where wine was sold (taverns), without of course forgetting the fact that the Church was in need of wine for its liturgical use as the "Blood of Christ", although this is another matter requiring of a more profound reflection and tranquil reading.

Miguel Ángel Flores Gonzalo, Enonlogist
Taberna Amboades
C. Alfonso VI, 5
Santiago del Arrabal - Toledo