Knights of Segovia

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We left at 9am by bus for Segovia which is about 2 hours from Salamanca. Once there, we met our

guide, Elvira, and she told us about the Roman aqueduct, which is the best preserved aqueduct in Europe.

Some believe that it was built by the Romans in the 1st century to bring water from the mountains, a few

kilometers in the distance, to the city. The Segovian legend is this:

There was once a young Segovian woman who had to walk all the way from Segovia down to the river

at the base of the mountain everyday just to get some water. One day she said aloud that she’d even sell

her soul to the devil if he’d make it easier to bring water to the city. When the devil heard this, he made a

deal with the girl - he promised to build a bridge for the water in one single night; in exchange, she would

have to give him her soul. He worked all night but at sunrise he was missing one stone - the key stone

that holds the whole aqueduct together. Because of this the woman got to keep her soul and the good

Christians of Segovia put a statue of Mary on top of the aqueduct to ward off the devil.

Whoever built it, they built it well and it was still used up until the middle of the 19th century!

The interesting part is that there is nothing holding the stones together - no mortar or glue! - just the

pressure from the stones and perfect Roman engineering.


After the aqueduct we walked through the old Jewish, Arab and Christian sections of the city. We

learned a little about the architecture that each culture used when building their houses and monuments.

Then we took a tour of the Cathedral and Plaza Mayor before walking up to the Alcazar, which was the

palace of Ferdinand and Isabella, the royals who united Spain and granted Columbus permission to sail

the Atlantic (I think you know the rest of that story!)

The Alcazar looked very similar to Cinderella’s palace at Disney with its blue tiled turrets. It even

had a moat (very little water though) and a drawbridge. Inside, there were rooms filled with suits of

armor. There were some for men, some for horses - even some for kids. The armor was mainly used for

jousting tournaments (In Spain they’ve seen “A Knight’s Tale” too! The guide even used it as a reference).

The kids wore the armor to get used to the weight of all the metal.

We saw all the royal rooms: the throne room, royal bedroom, dining room, chapel. We got to eat

our lunch at the top of the highest tower - until the guard told us it wasn’t allowed - oops!



After Segovia we took a quick trip to “La Granja” which is where the winter palace of the royal

family is located. We didn’t go inside the palace, but we got to walk through the gardens (it took over an

hour to see all the gardens). Unfortunately they are going through a drought, so none of the fountains

were flowing, but it was still very impressive.



That pretty much ended the trip - a long day, but well worth the effort.

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Photos

Inside the Cathedral of Segovia
That’s the API group sitting on the bench and Elvira, our guide, in the red jacket on the right.

Music to my ears
One of the two gigantic organs inside the choir stall of the Cathedral. If you look closely there is a man practicing for the mass – he was very good!

Approaching the Castle
We had to walk over the moat and drawbridge – that’s right, they were real! Although there is very little water in the moat these days, it was very deep. They don’t put the draw-bridge up anymore, but in the days of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand when they had to hide in the castle during battles, they used it a lot!

Me in front of the main tower
I ate my bocadillos (sandwiches) on top the tower that day.

Armor for Kids
Don't Worry, the kids didn't get hurt. They just wore the armor to get used to it and prepare to joust.

Armor my size?
In case I take up jousting as a hobby, I know where to find a suit of armor that fits me!

Jousting Tourneys
They had several horses and men dressed up in the armor room.

Ceiling
Its incredible the amount of detail that went into just one ceiling!

The Throne Room
Spanish Coat of Arms over the throne chairs of Isabel and Ferdinand.

An more
Each one was a little different.

Original laptop
This is the royal desk – really the original laptop. It housed all of the important royal documents; when they moved to their other castles, they just closed it up and took it with them. At only a few hundred pounds it was super-portable.

Can you see her?
Picture of Segovia with Dead Woman Mountain (that’s not the official name) in the background. Can you see her? The legend is that while two men were fighting over her, she got in their way and was killed. So she was buried there in the mountain – or something like that. It was a bit morbid, but fun to see the shape.

Ferdinand and Isabella, and some others..
There’s a mini-replica of every Spanish king and queen in this room.

Top of the Castle
Just like Cinderella’s castle with the blue turrets.
Unfortunately the view wasn’t much – typical scenery of Castilla-Leon, lots of brown, hills, farms, and more brown.

Just a nice view
City street with Cathedral in the background. It was sunny but a bit cold that day.

See the designs on the facades of these buildings?
I learned that if a building was constructed of large stones, the family was most likely rich as stone was very expensive; but, if the building was constructed of little bricks, much cheaper, the arabs would disguise them by covering them in plaster and stamping designs into the plaster – the result is what you see in this photo.

What is it?
Normally this would be a mermaid, but since Segovia isn’t anywhere near the sea, this is the mer-lioness – half mermaid, half lion.

Fountains of the Winter Palace
Unfortunately, to conserve water they don’t turn on the fountains except for a few days during the year. On those days, I’ve heard that the place in packed because it is “una maravilla”