the aqueduct to Old Segovia

Every once in awhile you stumble across a place that’s not at all what you expected. Sometimes your expectations are high, and the place is a dud. And sometimes you visit a place not because the guidebook’s description moved you especially but because you needed a place to stop for the night. You may have chosen to drive right past it in the daylight. But fate stepped in and put an opportunity smack-dab in the middle of your path, and this bit of happenstance turns out to be an unexpected delight. This was the case with Segovia.

Yes, I knew about the Roman aqueduct. I read about it in Fodor’s and saw photos of it in the listing of the apartment we rented. You can see it from our apartment window. But all that only registered in a subliminal way; I was too focused on finding an apartment between Madrid and Santiago de Compostela.

We arrived in Segovia, found the apartment, met our host, got the tour of the apartment, unloaded our bags, the host left, and finally we took a deep breath and looked around us. And there it was – the aqueduct, literally larger than life. At first we observed that it went from our apartment down a few blocks to a remote part of the city where we parked the car and found a restaurant to get a bite to eat. Then we walked back to the apartment, walked round a bend, and – Holy cow! – the thing extends way past the apartment to this fantastic fortress upon a hill – the old, walled city of Segovia. The old city is surrounded by an amazing crenelated wall that encompasses the Plaza Mayor (the main square, an integral social component of any Spanish city), the Cathedral, and, most magnificently, the Alcázar – the Royal Palace/Moorish fortress/Roman outpost at the top of the hill. All of this visible from where we were standing with our mouths wide open.

The ancient city itself would have been jaw-dropping, but that aqueduct! Almost half a mile long, it’s made of over 25,000 granite blocks with no mortar to hold them together. And it’s been standing for over 2000 years! It has more than 170 arches. What we had seen earlier was the short part of the aqueduct, only about 45 feet high with one tier of arches. At the tallest point, the aqueduct is almost 90 feet tall with two large tiers. And did I mention that it’s stunning?

Segovia’s cathedral

Before I go any further I have to explain a bit about Spanish history, as I understand it. To keep it brief, I’ll start with Roman times. The Romans came to Spain around 260 BCE and thrived here for about 600 years, until the Western Roman Empire came to a grinding halt. (The Eastern Roman Empire continued for another thousand years.) About this time the Visigoths (or Goths) and other European tribes came into the Iberian peninsula through France and pushed out the declining Romans. The Goths lasted for about 300 years until one non-Christian splinter tribe, feeling persecuted by the Christian Goths, traveled into North Africa (the Strait of Gibraltar is only nine miles wide) to ask for support. 7000 Berbers (a tribe from North Africa) returned with the Goths to invade Iberia. In a few years they had conquered almost the entire Iberian peninsula beginning an almost 800-year Iberian civilization. These African Muslims, called Moors by the Europeans, tolerated other religions and, unlike the Christians who ruled before them, allowed the indigenous Jews and Christians to remain without conversion to Islam. For 800 years all three religious groups lived together harmoniously, until the Christian king and queen in northern Spain, Fernando and Isabel, decided to reconquer Spain for the Christians in 1492. Yes, they were the king and queen we call Ferdinand and Isabella who sponsored Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World. Later the same year, they also “expelled” any Muslims and Jews from Spain who wouldn’t convert to Christianity, otherwise known as the Reconquista, or Reconquest – the polite name for the Inquisition.

a blend of history

Okay, back to Segovia…. The aspect of the city that most intrigues me is the blend of history. The Roman influence is obvious in the aqueduct, but historians believe that the Moorish fortress, the Alcázar, at the highest point on the hill, is built upon an earlier Roman fort. And when los Reyes Católicos (as Fernando and Isabel are known in Spain, as if they were the first or only Catholic monarchs) expelled the Moors, a Catholic palace/church was built on the site. One of the things that excites me most about European history is the layers of history that can be observed in any one location – one civilization built on top of another. Archeologists must have a field day here!

I am thrilled by the history, but I’m also enchanted by what I am seeing. They say that the Disney logo is based on the slate-turreted towers of the Alcázar here in Segovia. (I’ve heard that about other European castles as well.) True or not, the important thing to take away from this is that the fortress is extraordinary, as is the aqueduct, the walled city, and the rest of ancient Segovia.

the Alcázar

Marcus commented within the first few hours that we were in Segovia that he could spend at least three weeks exploring and enjoying the incredibly welcoming people, and so could I. We are so fortunate that this amazing town serendipitously fell into our path as we made our way to Santiago.

 
Some people love to visit palaces in every country they travel to, but we usually skip them. They all tend to look alike to us. I mean, how many objects can you slather with gold to show visiting dignitaries that your country is wealthy (while your peasants are starving and dying from poverty). I have to say that Spain’s Palacio Real is no different. I wanted to see it, however, because I recently read a brief history of the country, and it was interesting for me to see, for example, which room beloved Carlos III died in and how his son Carlos IV redecorated it as a memorial to his father (the fabric on the walls was woven to match the trim on a robe worn by his father in a portrait painted shortly before he died). Or how Alfonso XII took over the three rooms remodeled for Carlos III’s wife, Maria Amalia of Saxony, and turned them into a fantastic banquet hall. (Sadly Maria Amalia died just before her elaborate apartments were completed, so she never got to live in them.) I was also captivated to enter a gorgeous room lined in deep blue velvet and trimmed with fleurs-de-lis, the first room decorated by Felipe V after he was crowned the first Bourbon king of Spain. After all those red rooms, it was quite a relief! Like stepping into the cool, blue sea after broiling on the red-hot beach. (Red is the color of Spain, as blue is of France.)

Another thing I found interesting: The chapel contains thrones for the king and queen. While they are not as elaborate as those in the Throne Room, they were a constant reminder that the church and state are one. Coming from a country where the separation of church and state is so integral to our foundation, I have to remind myself that this is not the case everywhere, even in this day and age.

But really, if you don’t know one king from another (and I barely do), does any of this really mean anything? It’s just another excuse to gape at the opulence of a once-rich country. Note: The current palace was built during the Empire, when Spain was still bringing home silver, gold, and other riches from her colonies in America. At that time, their wealth was beyond compare. Too bad they weren’t able to hold on to some of it or invest it more wisely. So sad that today they are struggling financially.

Coolest thing about the Palacio Real? It’s built on a bluff, the western edge of Madrid, overlooking the Manzanares River, the plains of Castilla, and the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains to the northwest. It’s the site of the Moorish Alcazar fortress built in the 9th century when the Moors (from northern Africa) occupied most of Spain. Good place for a fortress; very easily defended, I imagine. In fact, the original palace was the Alcazar until it burnt to the ground in 1734. Gorgeous view from the palace and very dramatic itself when viewed on the clifftop from points north or south!