The next stop was the town of
Avila, also known as the
town of stones and saints. It is roughly 110 km from Madrid and founded around the same time as
Segovia in 200 BC.
Avila is a beautiful example of what a medieval 16th century Roman town looked like because it has well-preserved walls surrounding the town, complete with 88 towers, 9 gates and Roman bridge.
As I learned,
Avila has the only in-tact medieval wall in the world! The tourist center allows visitors to observe the complete wall that was started in 1090 with tower gates dispersed at various points around town.
Tourists and residents access the town via openings in the battlement sections of the wall. It is evident that only small cars of today will suffice if you want to get from one side to the other. I'm not familiar with the horse-drawn carriages used over the centuries, but they were obviously able to navigate these openings as well.
Indications of the past were plentiful when walking the streets of this town. For instance, we came across a mural of
Alfonso VI, the man who built the wall. As someone from my tour group commented, "You would think there would be a more prominent place to commemorate the architect and builder of the wall than etched on a wall on some side street." Agreed.
Avila has its own historic cathedrals and statues like other towns of this era. For instance, we visited
St John’s Cathedral whose bell tower was visible in the city square.
Our group also visited
St Teresa's Cathedral. Apparently Teresa, born in 1515, was a Spanish noblewoman who chose the monastic way of life and spent 40 years in a convent outside of
Avila.
St Teresa's Cathedral and continued admiration for her writings support the fact that Spain is overwhelmingly dedicated to Catholicism. Current 2018 statistics also reinforce this -- having 68% residents of Spain identifying as Catholic -- along with the number of cathedrals dotted across the countryside and other indications such as a large cross displayed outside of town.
