Avila's Walls

So, finally, we walked Avila's walls, as much as are open...several kilometers anyway. We've seen our share of ancient city walls. Avila's are indeed quite impressive, both the extent and the preservation.

There are only three entrances to the walls;
here's one; the ticket booth is the tiled little
building below; the steps comparable to the
"Gringo Killer" on the Camino Inka, but with
a handrail; note Celtic pig in background

Atop the wall and walking most of it; looking back at the
cathedral

Defender's view of city square

The countryside

 

Everything signed, described; different ethnic//social/economic
groups had different sections of the wall to defend

Defender's view of nice restaurant to be defended

Looking back to cathedral, again

Of course contemporary Avila extends well beyond the old walls

Spare parts

A privacy fence?!

Well, yes, some of the houses are built quite close to the wall

Celtic pig replica; one of the major jamon-producing areas,
Guijuelo, is nearby

 

It goes on, and on...

Looking to the convention center camper-stop where we spent
the night

On and on...

From without, again

Beautifully lit

Most Helpful Model Ever, So Far: Avila's Walls

So there it is, in the floor above Avila's TI, the largest, most helpful model we
have yet encountered, anywhere

Detail; everything labeled, explained; you're looking right at how the cathedral
is built into the wall

You can even step inside for the defenders' view, further description, explanation

I was maximally impressed

Avila Cathedral

I can't pass up a cathedral, and Avila's, though not famous, was of interest.

Full front view; wait, no, main facade view

Sort of mixed Romanesque/Gothic; the Gothic memo got to Spain
just in time for Baroque

Elevation; lots of light in the nave

The usual gorgeous screen, which 1) prevents anyone from
seeing the full extent of the building, and 2) prevents the knaves
from seeing the hocus-pocus the priests are up to

Internal buttressing

What was of interest to me was the mixture of
red and cream colored stone mostly in the
vaulting over ambulatory

The lighting emphasized it, but it was still
striking

Sculpture in the ambulatory...mostly figures
reading; here St. Jerome is reading to his pet
lion, St. Leo

More reading

Altar

Organ

Choir

Helpful model

In the treasury/museum/whatever

Priestly vestments department

Nice-looking cloister, but the stone is deteriorating and it is
both screened and glassed off

Nice cathedral; interestingly, it's built right into the wall; more
about which anon

Avila

We had intended to visit Avila in 2010, but the weather changed and we had to get back to the warmth of Lisbon. Avila has the best intact city walls in Europe, so it is said, and, in 2010, we had to content ourselves with a long-distance view as we drove by. 2017 was different, as we spent most of the day and night in Avila, mostly on or about the walls.

Familiar sight: stork feeding young; nests on every high point

Nice Modernistta benches we have seen all over Spain

Castille y Leon

A bit of the walls from without

In the old city, at a patisserie, Vicki spies a new (to us) pastry:
the farton

We had to try some; looks more like a turdon with powdered
surgar

Also the micro-mini pain chocolat

With the legalization of marihuana some years back, the Spanish
are coming up with all sort of interesting new ways to smoke

Towers

St. Teresa is the local patron saint, and there
is a small St. Teresea industry here, shops,
pastries, icons

Some Art Nouveau here and there

This is the Celtic pig dug up some years ago--it dates from 200
to 500 BC--and which has become the city emblem

Official Avila pastry; we'd already met our
daily quota with the fartons

Avila's Parador, evidently the oldest of Spain's
paradors, a network of state-owned hotels
known for their historical interest, amenities,
restaurants, etc.

Avila street scene

Church of St. Teresa, with tour bus pilgrims

St. Teresa

Siege view of walls

We spent the night with 30 or so other rigs without the walls,
at the city's convention center parking lot, where there is an
aire de camping cars; at the convention center that weekend
was the Spanish National Association for Yoga, so it was
fairly quiet except for the deep breathing and occasional
"Namaste"