Having stopped overnight on our drive down, we decided to spend a day exploring the city on our return.
Segovia certainly deserves its UNESCO World Heritage listing! What a wonderful place to visit, with an excellent municipal parking area for camper vans provided free of charge beside the bullring and only a few minutes walk to the amazing Roman aqueduct for which Segovia is, of course, famous. Our walking tour of the city was exhausting though! Setting off from the parking area we walked to Plaza del Azoguejo where the aqueduct reaches it’s highest point at 28m. This 894m-long fantastic engineering feat ‘marches’ across the edge and into the city. We first saw it at night, on our journey down, which inspired us to visit again. Built by the Romans in the 1st century CE as part of a complex system of aqueducts and canals bringing water from the mountain area 15km away its excellent condition is the result of a major restoration project in the 1990s. There is no mortar holding the 20,000 uneven granite blocks supporting 163 arches. We thought the aqueducts in Rome were impressive, but this is truly spectacular.
Although it was Sunday, the cathedral was open for visitors. Started in 1525 on the site of a former chapel, it is a classic example of high Gothic architecture, taking almost 200 years to complete. The massive three-nave interior has an imposing choir stall and over 20 smaller chapels. Having failed to get any service at a busy and rather expensive cafe in the Plaza Major we found a lovely pizzeria, El Patio de la Nonna down a side street with just one table available and a friendly waitress. Having refreshed ourselves we continued on our tour . . .
Fortified since Roman times, the Alcázar was rebuilt in the 13th & 14th centuries. On seeing the outside close up, Bev thought it looked like a cartoon castle. In fact, Walt Disney is said to have modelled Sleeping Beauty’s castle in California’s Disneyland on it and what we see today is a modern reconstruction following total destruction by fire in 1862. The interior has some remarkable ceilings and the Sala de Reyes has a three-dimensional frieze of 52 sculptures of kings who fought during the Reconquista. On our long walk back to the van, we also visited the Bishop’s Palace – according to Strava we walked nearly eight miles and climbed 900’!