Ávila
At weekend, I began my 'weekend tour' de España, with a day trip to Ávila. It only took an hour and a half to get there by coach and was really cheap from Salamanca. When I was on my way, out of the window of the coach, it looked so foggy and uninviting. Lots of people had told me that Ávila was much colder than Salamanca and to wrap up warm. In contrast, however, as we drew closer to this city and it’s incredible medieval walls came into my view, I felt a complete change of heart!
With it’s eight enormous gates and 88 towers, Ávila’s muralla (city wall) is an amazing site to see and makes you literally feel like your about to enter a big medieval castle. The Puerta de San Vinciente, are some of the more impressive gates, right next to the large arched roof of the cathedral and also the impressive Basilica de San Vinciente.
When I arrived in Ávila, with my Lonely Planet guide in hand, I headed straight to the Basilica de San Vinciente, This is a large Romanesque building from the 11th century, with some Gothic modifications from later ages.
Inside the Basilica was one of the most beautiful high altars I have ever seen, it was laden in gold and had stunning paintings inside it. San Vicente has a Latin cross plan, with two aisles ending in the semicircular golden altar. Also, there are some very narrow steep stairs at one side. It was only once I was half way down these steps (with no physical way of ascending) that I realized I was on my way into the crypts. After fearing the worst of this tiny stone chamber, I was relieved to find many tourists down there and also some lovely sculptures!
Over the road from the Basilica, I wandered into what I could only describe as a really intimate tiny church. I couldn’t find a name on the outside of it, or when I got home on google map (although I screenshot it on google map street view!). When I walked into this tiny and apparently unknown religious building, I thought that I had made a mistake and walked into somebody’s house, which happened to have a religious shrine in the living room. There were flowers in vases, chandeliers and it was so snug and little. I doubt that it would have fit more than 30 people. I even felt bad for taking a photo, like I was intruding!
Outside of this building, I milled around with a Spanish tour group for a while, who were discussing the Basilica, but their talk went on for too long and so I set about Ávila guide free, in search of the cathedral. On my travels, I met a very glamorous older Spanish lady; the type I absolutely adore. So many older Spanish women walk around with heels on and a big mink fur coat, at ages well over 70. I hope that I take note when I am their age! After a little chat with my new friend I discovered that she enjoys walking down the ‘Rastro’ in her furs when it’s cold (I entirely see her point), and that she would like to accompany me to the cathedral! She walked me up a big hill and dropped me off outside some remarkable fortress walls. I said ‘gracias’ for this kind woman’s help and bid ‘hasta luego’ as I dawdled through a big arch.
Ávila’s 12th Century Cathedral is the earliest gothic church in Spain. Walking through the beautifully lit corridors, there was a view of an atrium garden through the glass wall to your right, and long timeline of the various popes to your left.
The inside of the cathedral was so vast, I felt miniscule inside it. There was some striking stained glass that stood out a mile against the red and white limestone columns. There is also a museum in the Cathedral with an El Greco painting and some interesting costumes.
After the Cathedral, I decided to venture up onto the incredible city wall. The walls are over 12 meters high and you can walk over 1km along them. There are some fabulous views to be seen from the many viewpoints, including the top of the Cathedral and Plaza de Santa Teresa.
Whilst I was on the wall, I could hear old-fashioned flute music both faintly and then later really loud. I thought that there might be speakers hidden in the wall to make you feel medieval, and to add to the ambience, but I was wrong, as when I got off the wall there was a man playing the flute, which amused me!
After this I saw a statue of San Juan de la Cruz, and headed over to the Convento de Santa Teresa, which was built in 1636 over the Saint’s birthplace. In this building there is a chapel smothered in gold and a baroque altar.
Santa Teresa de Ávila was born in 1515 and grew up to become a Spanish nun, mystic and reformer of the Carmelite nuns. She was raised by Augustinian nuns after her mother’s death and she joined the Carmelite order age 20. This fascinating woman had a mysterious illness that paralyzed her legs for 3 years. Early in her sickness, she experienced periods of religious ecstasy through the use of the devotional book "Tercer abecedario espiritual," (The Third Spiritual Alphabet). After this, she founded the Carmelite Descalzas (Shoeless Carmelites) and also helped reform the male order with San Juan de Cruz. In her life, Teresa believed that she saw Jesus in the flesh, although he was invisible, and that an angel drove a lance of fire through her heart. She published many books on her beliefs. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, 40 years after her death.
A quote from one of St. Teresa’s writings, which is quite famous, is:
“I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it...”
This was the inspiration for one of Bernini's most famous works, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.
In the Convento de Santa Teresa, there is a replica of the type of bedroom that Teresa would have had as a nun. I thought this was so interesting. In this building there were lots of Teresa relics, apparently including the ring finger of St. Teresa (complete with ring), which supposedly spent the best part of the Franco years on the Generalisimo’s bedside table. I kind of feel bittersweet that I didn’t find this.
Later, I went to the Iglesia de Santo Tomé El Viejo, which is a building that dates back to the 13th Century. Although this building was far from resembling a church and appeared to me to be more of a stone masons it had a magnificent floor mosaic made out of Roman foundation stones!
After all of this sightseeing, I decided to stop by the celebrated ‘Flor de Castilla’ patisserie to try one of the local delicacies called a ‘yema de Ávila’. In my Lonely Planet guide, it said this about a yema: “An ultra-sweet, sticky business made of egg yolk and sugar, allegedly invented by Teresa herself.” What it should have in fact said was ‘This is actually a hardened egg yolk coated in sugar. You will only find this sticky vile business ultra-sweet if you have a preference to eating raw egg yolks.’ RANK. I’ll read the ingredients list much more carefully next time.
After my unfortunate culinary displeasure, I had a walk along the rastro, which was the path along the outside of the city wall. As it was nearly sunset, this was a really lovely experience; I took a few pictures along my way of some of the monuments.
A door handle I liked!
Yellow pages in Spanish!
As my day was drawing to a close, I thought I would be nice to follow some nuns down a path and into the nunnery. It seemed like a good idea because it looked pretty open to the public, as it was the side part to a church. However, looking back, I think that maybe it was closed or something, as I got locked inside and was too nervous to walk through a floor length curtain to see where the nuns had gone. Finally after a bit of a panic, I went through the curtain, which led into a huge vault full of nuns staring at me. After haphazardly trying to explain that I had made a mistake and did not belong in a nunnery, they let me out!
I hopped into a cab back to the coach station and had some tapas y pinchos at a nearby lounge called El bar del norte. Ávila’s castle walls are even more breathtaking at night.
My Souvenir from Ávila!
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