For Unamuno it was “the Castilian Jerusalem” for its recollection and spirituality. For Delibes, a place “with a slow and withdrawn climate” with “its roots embedded in history.” For everyone who knows it, or barely intuits it in their imagination, it is the city of walls. A medieval framework anchored by the only defensive fortification that has survived intact into the 21st century.
Ávila is many other things, yes, but nothing identifies it more than this solemn wall of 88 towers and nine gates, visible from the distance. An impenetrable belt that keeps ancient convents, splendid churches and emblazoned palaces safe. A guardian over a labyrinth of twisted streets, in which he prevails a silence that weighs as much as the stones that trace his profile.
Discovering this monumental city means entering and leaving the wall like someone entering and leaving history. Like someone taking a round trip to distant glorious times. But there is an original and fun way to get around it, which also avoids the very steep slopes: aboard a tuk-tuk, those motorized tricycles so common in the noisy cities of Southeast Asia.
It is surprising to see these electric vehicles, with capacity for six people, wriggling among the stone beauty of this city, which built its defensive enclosure in the 12th century with the Gredos mountain range as a backdrop. This is how it can be seen from the outside, in the Plaza de Santa Teresa, where this tour begins with the beautiful image of the church of San Pedro (watch out for its imposing rose window) next to the controversial buildings of Rafael Moneo.
The Paseo del Rastro, next to the wall, and the Guzmanes tower, serve as a prelude to one of the unavoidable stops that the tuk-tuk makes for the enjoyment of travelers: the church and convent of Santa Teresa. And Ávila, everyone knows, is also Saint Teresa of Jesús, whose mysticism has remained impregnated in the old walls for eternity.
This baroque complex, built on what was her birthplace, houses in the vaulted crypt a Teresian museum with sculptures by Gregorio Hernández, editions of the saint’s works and, most strikingly, a room of relics where the ring finger is kept. of his right hand.
The route continues on three wheels and now touches some fresh air, the one you breathe in the Cuatro Postes. From this granite viewpoint, lording over the city, you can get the postcard panorama, with the roofs enclosed in that perfect ring that, at sunset, appears even more imposing.
Thus the path continues towards the hermitage of San Segundo, next to the Adaja river, to then appreciate the Arco del Carmen and advance to the basilica of San Vicente, one of the most significant of the Castilian Romanesque. It is then that, once again, one enters within the walls to admire the fabulous cathedral, which is attached to the wall through the apse (or dome), which gives it an appearance more typical of a fortress.
Considered the first Gothic cathedral in Spain, its interior boasts beautiful stained glass windows from the 15th century, an altarpiece by Berruguete, a Plateresque choir and a Renaissance alabaster tomb full of details. Also to house, in the cloister, the tomb of an illustrious contemporary Avila native: Adolfo Suárez, the father of democracy, who rests under an epitaph that reads: “Concord was possible.”
The tuk-tuk route continues through the pleasant Mercado Chico square to leave again in search of the last stop: the Monastery of the Incarnation, where Saint Teresa lived as a nun for 27 years (you can see her own cell). and another mystic, Saint John of the Cross, did so as chaplain for five years.
It is then time to return to the wall, always the wall, but this time to eat while caressing it and sleep curled up at its feet. This is what the Sofraga Palacio boutique hotel-restaurant proposes, located in a majestic 16th century mansion, attached to the great emblem of the city. Here, where history has been trapped between the wooden coffered ceilings and the masonry walls, it puts a perfect finishing touch to any getaway to Ávila.
You have to eat at its namesake restaurant, in the glass patio in front of a garden presided over by a 500-year-old cedar. You have to do it because it is the most authentic way to discover local delicacies such as revolconas potatoes with torreznos, lamb sweetbreads, kidney beans and, of course, the Ávila steak, which will have to make room for dessert. emblematic of the house: grandmother’s cake, a true delicacy of cream, cookies and chocolate.
But, above all, you have to live the experience of sleeping with the wall as the head of the bed (it is also on the walls of the hallways). Because Sofraga Palacio, which displays a masterful dialogue between history and comfort, tradition and modernity, has preserved the original elements in its 27 exclusive rooms and suites, all with views of the palace itself or the great landmarks of the city: the cathedral, the basilica of San Vicente and, of course, what Unamuno described as “a diamond of berroqueña stone gilded by the suns of the centuries.”