Avila It is a beautiful city with a lot of history. The biggest tourist attraction that it has and that is undoubtedly known worldwide: the Walls of Ávila, a spectacular Romanesque military fence that surrounds the old town and that both, together with the churches that are outside the walls, are World Heritage. The walls are without a doubt a very important factor in the city and historically they have participated in the distribution of urban space, formerly representing the separation between wild and civilized space.
The Walls of Ávila have a perimeter of two and a half kilometers, 2,500 battlements, 88 turrets and 9 doors that occupy an area of 33 hectares and that form a perfect rectangle that is oriented from east to west. The thickness of the walls is 3 meters and its height is 12. Its construction was made with materials that came from the roman necropolis, of civil constructions or of old Roman and Visigothic walls. The stone that forms it is gray or black granite, depending on its origin.
The gates of the wall are spectacular and each one has its own history. The Puerta del Alcázar It is the most solemn of the entire wall and is made up of two towers linked by a bridge. The San Vicente Gate It is very similar to the previous one, in fact, that of the Alcázar was inspired by this one. The Keep of the Alcazar it was built to make the wall higher and to give more power to those who inhabited it.
If you go to visit Ávila without a doubt the first place you should go is here. You can access 1,400 meters of its length through three different entrances, the Butchers House, the Puerta del Alcázar and the Arco del Carmen. There is an elevator so that people with reduced mobility can also do the tour.
The Medieval Walls of Ávila (May 2024)
- Avila
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