We have just arrived at this legendary street located next to Calle Comercio, between the Plaza de las Cuatro Calles and the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. We know that during the Islamic period in the Middle Ages it was the area where numerous shops were located around the Great Mosque (today the Cathedral) that were closed at night. This complex was known as the alcaicería and some time later, it became part of the Jewish quarter of Toledo, transforming its name into Alcaná. Due to a fire that occurred in the anti-Semitic revolts of 1391, the Chapter led by Archbishop Pedro Tenorio took the opportunity to expropriate the neighborhood from the Jews and build the cloister of the Primate Cathedral in it.

      The legend

The most widespread version of the story of the Man of Palo tells how the Italian Janello Torriani, for us Juanelo Iturriano, made a wooden automaton dressed as a monk with the aim of begging for alms on this street to pay for the construction of the Hospital del Nuncio Viejo, with the peculiarity that when he received them, he made an elegant bow before the donor. This inventor is considered the most ingenious mathematician and watchmaker of the sixteenth century in our country, so much so that Emperor Charles V made him part of his Court and accompanied him until his last days in the Monastery of Yuste. Unfortunately, this legend ends with the tragic destruction of the artifice by the Holy Inquisition since due to the misunderstanding of its complex mechanical system, they alluded to its unequivocal relationship with the devil.