Spain Guide
Around Madrid
Ávila
Two things distinguish ÁVILA: its eleventh-century walls, two perfectly preserved kilometres of which surround the old town, and the mystic writer Santa Teresa, who was born here and whose shrines are a major focus of religious pilgrimage. Set on a high plain, with the peaks of the Sierra de Gredos behind, the town is quite a sight, especially if you approach with the evening sun highlighting the golden tone of the walls and the details of the 88 towers.
Ávila's walls make orientation straightforward, with the cathedral and most other sights contained within. Just outside the southeast corner of the walls is the city's main square, Plaza Santa Teresa, and the most imposing of the old gates, the Puerta del Alcázar. Within the walls, the old market square, Plaza de la Victoria, fronts the ayuntamiento at the heart of the old city.
Santa Teresa (1515–82) was born to a noble family in Ávila and from childhood experienced visions and religious raptures. Her religious career began at the Carmelite convent of La Encarnación, where she was a nun for 27 years. From this base, she went on to reform the movement and found convents throughout Spain. She was an ascetic, but her appeal lay in the mystic sensuality of her experience of Christ, as revealed in her autobiography, for centuries a bestseller in Spain. As joint patron saint of Spain (together with Santiago), she remains a central pillar in Spanish Catholicism and schoolgirls are brought into Ávila by the busload to experience first-hand the life of the woman they are supposed to emulate. She died in Alba de Tormes just outside Salamanca, and the Carmelite convent, which contains the remains of her body and a dubious reconstruction of the cell in which she passed away, is another major target of pilgrimage. On a more bizarre note, one of Santa Teresa's mummified hands has now been returned to Ávila after spending the Franco years by the bedside of the dictator.
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