7 Best Sights in Castile–Leon and Castile–La Mancha, Spain

This Gaudí masterpiece, which housed a bank until 2017, is now an excellent museum dedicated to the Moderniste architect. Under the conical spires and behind the squamous facade are more than 5,000 works of art spanning eight centuries by such renowned masters as Sorolla, Madrazo, Gutiérrez, and Solana. Given that this is the largest of Gaudí's buildings to be opened as a museum, it's worth the extra few euros for a guided tour in English.

This contemporary art museum, constructed using minimalist wood beams and glass panels inside a 15th-century mansion, pays homage to Zanetti, a 20th-century Castilian artist known for his thought-provoking murals portraying agrarian life. Some may remind you of works by El Greco for their shimmering luminosity. It's worth the stop, and you can view the exhibit in under an hour.

It's worth detouring to this museum for its facade alone, a modern technicolor masterpiece by famed Spanish architects Mansilla + Tuñón. The endless rainbow of rectangles that encloses the building is an homage to the colorful stained glass of the cathedral. Inside, wander through rooms bearing the latest art and multimedia projects by locally and nationally acclaimed artists. Films and concerts are also shown throughout the year.

Sure, the best thing about this museum is probably the stunning Moderniste building it's housed in, but the collections—comprising 19th-century paintings and glass, French and German china dolls, Viennese bronze statues, and more—are a welcome reprieve from all the churrigueresque convents and churches.

In a 16th-century Renaissance hospital with a stunning Classical-plateresque facade, this museum is open all day without a break (unlike many of Toledo's other sights). Works of art have replaced the hospital beds, and among the displays is El Greco's Assumption of 1613, the artist's last known work. A small archaeology museum is set in the hospital's delightful cloister.

This house that once belonged to Peter the Cruel's treasurer, Samuel Levi, is said to have later been El Greco's home, though historians now believe he actually lived across the street. Nevertheless, the interior of the El Greco Museum is decorated to resemble a typical house of the artist's time. The house is now incorporated into a revamped El Greco museum with several of the artist's paintings, including a panorama of Toledo with the Hospital of Tavera in the foreground, and works by several of El Greco's students (including his son) and other 16th- and 17th-century artists. Medieval caves have been excavated at the site, and there's a beautiful garden in which to take refuge from Toledo's often-scorching summer heat. 

Most of the region's pottery is made in Talavera de la Reina, 76 km (47 miles) west of Toledo. At this museum you can watch artisans throw local clay, then trace the development of Talavera's world-famous ceramics, chronicled through some 1,500 tiles, bowls, vases, and plates back to the 14th century.