The Walls of Ávila, Spain

by
spain walls Avila 1
The walls of Ávila are lit at night, and surrounded by a walking path. It's a brisk 3 kilometers or so, and a lovely walk on a cool Castillian night.

Of course the first thing you notice as you approach Ávila, Spain is the walls. The walls of Ávila are pretty hard to miss.

spain walls Avila 6
The apse of the Cathedral is integrated into the eastern stretch of the walls of Ávila.

The entire idea of Ávila seems bound up in the walls. The old city is completely surrounded by 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) of the stone and concrete walls. The average height of the walls of Ávila is 12 meters (39 feet) and their average thickness is 3 meters (10 feet.) There are 88 semicircular towers which stick up above the wall another three or four meters.

spain walls Avila 4
Oddly, it's said that the sparse decoration on some of the turrets of the walls of Ávila was done by Moorish craftsmen who stayed behind after the Reconquest. There was a time when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony in Spain. That ended with the Inquisition.

Ávila was one of the first towns reconquered by the Spanish Christians from the Moors in the 11th Century. The walls were started and the Cathedral was also built and integrated into the walls soon after. The idea was to repopulate the area with Christians, and along with nearby Salamanca and Segovia, provide a rear guard against possible counter attacks by the Moors.

spain walls Avila 3
A daytime walk around the tops of the walls is probably best to get a sense of the building technique and scope.

I suggest a walk around the top of the walls during the day so you can get a sense of the detail and the scope and the craftsmanship. You can't walk all the way around, but you can get a pretty good idea.

spain walls Avila 7
The lights come on as the dusk encroaches. The walls of Avila are lit all the way around, providing a backdrop for the people who walk around the city at night.

Or, if you prefer a little more romance, the night time circumnavigation of the walls is lovely.

See our photos of the Cathedral of Avila here.

The center of the city of Ávila is a Unesco World Heritage site. Spain is the country with the third most Unesco sites. To see a list of all the Spanish sites, with links to our posts about them, click here.

Up Your Travel Skills

Looking to book your next trip? Use these resources that are tried and tested by us.

First, to get our best travel tips, sign up for our email newsletter.

Then, be sure to start your reading with our Resources Page where we highlight all the great travel companies and products that we trust.

Travel Accessories: Check out our list of all the accessories we carry to make getting there and being there a lot easier.

Credit Cards: See our detailed post on how to choose the right travel rewards credit card for you.

Flights: Start finding the very best flight deals by subscribing to Thrifty Traveler.

Book your Hotel: Find the best prices on hotels with Booking.com.

Travel insurance: We recommend the annual plan with Allianz Travel Insurance.

See all of the gear and books we like in one place on our Amazon shop.

Got a comment on this post? Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, or Threads and share your thoughts!

Comments are closed.

Get our travel tips!
Subscribe to our email list and join the thousands of other travel enthusiasts getting our best advice right in their inbox. And get our 50 best travel tips sent to you right away!

If you liked this post, please share it.

Thanks.