Santa María la Blanca is one of the buildings that claims it is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Europe. According to an inscription on a beam, the building was erected in 1180. It was constructed in the Kingdom of Castile – a Christian territory – and built by Islamic constructors for Jewish use, which makes its architectural style unique. It is considered a symbol of the cooperation that existed among the three cultures that populated the Iberian Peninsula during the time.
The synagogue was turned into a Catholic church and sometime after 1405. Today, it is owned and maintained as a museum by the Catholic Church, although there have been requests made in recent years by the Toledo Jewish community to turn the synagogue back over to them.
