There are some cities in Spain that announce themselves with palm trees, beaches and the smell of sangria. Ávila isn’t one of them. Ávila announces itself with a wall.
As you approach the city across the high plains of Castilla y León, the enormous medieval fortifications rise ahead of you, enclosing the old city almost like something from a film set. Towers, battlements and great stone gates surround a cluster of terracotta roofs and church spires. It is difficult not to be impressed – and that’s before you’ve even gone inside.
Ávila sits at around 1,130 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest provincial capitals in Spain. It’s also one of those places where the landscape helps explain the history. This is Castilla at its most atmospheric: wide-open countryside, big skies and a landscape that seems to stretch forever. Then, suddenly, there is Ávila.
The city was fortified in the aftermath of the Christian reconquest of Toledo in 1085, when the Kingdom of Castile needed to strengthen its frontier. The walls that we see today date largely from the late 11th and 12th centuries. UNESCO describes Ávila as an outstanding example of a medieval fortified city, and when you see them for yourself, you understand why.
Ávila’s walls are roughly 2.5 kilometres long, with an average thickness of about three metres. They contain dozens of towers and nine monumental gates, with the great Puerta de San Vicente and Puerta del Alcázar being particularly spectacular. The best thing you can do in Ávila is remarkably simple: walk on them. The elevated walkway, or adarve, gives you a completely different perspective of the city. It does come at a cost though, €6 per person. For the two of us it was too much, but perhaps you’ll be keener to get that birds’ eye view.
Inside the walls you’ll find the Catedral de El Salvador. It is imposing rather than flamboyant, built from the same pale granite as the walls. Its eastern end actually forms part of the city defences, giving the building the appearance of a church that has been welded onto a castle. Once again entrance is not free, but from inside the doorway you can catch a glimpse of the imposing ceiling. The cathedral website will give you all the information you need to decide if you want to spend €10 per person to go inside and see more. There does seem to be quite a lot of impressive religious architecture inside, but we just couldn’t justify the expense. For us it was enough to view the cathedral from the outside and admire the pride of lions that guards its walls.
The historic centre is packed with churches, convents, palaces and old houses. Don’t be afraid to stick your head inside and see if it’s worth venturing further. We did find some great free attractions. Just inside the walls near Plaza Sofraga, we found a great photography exhibition inside Palacio de los Verdugo. It was all about how Ávila celebrates its fiesta and it certainly looks worth returning to the city if you enjoy something spectacular with maybe a bit of jousting thrown into the equation! There are few fiestas during the year but the Medieval Week in late March/early April look particularly impressive.
Also inside the walls, and not far from the large central square, we stumbled (quite literally after walking uphill into town!) upon the Palacio Polentinos which houses the city’s military archives. We were surprised what an interesting and well presented military museum we found inside – and it was free!
Just outside the city walls we came across Iglesia de Santo Tomé el Viejo which didn’t look like an awful lot but once we went inside it was a fabulous freebie. There is a huge mosaic floor dominating what was once a church. Around the walls are lots of pots, rocks and damaged sculptures from various periods of the city’s history. We loved the old painted wagons and the vintage signs on the walls which didn’t really fit in with everything else!!
There are so many more corners of Ávila to explore, and one day is really not enough! We did find places to eat and drink that we’d like to share with you too. La Barra del Chico was a lovely little bar and it was such a shame that we only wanted a drink as the tapas being served looked wonderful. They are not open in the evenings which disappointed us further. Vermuteria El Atrio was a vermouth bar on the edge of the main square inside the walls. We had an early evening aperitif each and once again wished we hadn’t already planned on a proper dinner as the tapas served with our vermouth was superb. Our two evening meals were absolutely superb with neither really outclassing the other. Both restaurants are in the same little corner near the market. Both Restaurante Medieval and Tres Siglos serve excellent value tourist menus in the evening and the quality of food was very high indeed. We did not go hungry! Ávila is a carnivore’s dream (beef and suckling pig especially) but there are many options for everyone to enjoy.
We stayed just out of town in the Cuatro Postes hotel. It was very comfortable and breakfast was great, but having booked in advance I then forgot to look closer to our arrival date. There were bargain prices to be had, so make sure you look again after booking! The hotel is situated very close to the cuatro postes Roman remains, and from there it was a 20-30 minute walk into the centre but bear in mind it’s a bit up and down, and not the best lit route at night. We found it perfectly safe, but if you don’t enjoy walking in the dark, a taxi back may be a better bet!
There is plenty more to see if you have time. We never made it out to Monasterio de la Encarnación where you can still hear the nuns singing at prayer time. This was the home of local saint Teresa, who is more famous nowadays as the symbol of many touristy trinkets and the Ávilas delicacy of yermas, candied egg yolks, which we didn’t get around to trying.
We did find a lot of statues and monuments as we wandered around. Some were quirky and unexplained, whilst others were a bit more obvious.
Have you been to Ávila? Tell us what we missed in the comments below the map!
