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Published: February 2nd 2009
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Consuegra Fort
One of the key frontier castles in Reconquest Spain. Battle scars are clear on the tower.. I weighed up my options...On the one hand I could take almost an entire week off from school teaching and get to see some of the most iconic places in Spain, on the other hand, there would be fifty shouting screaming squabbling english and spanish schoolchildren following me round these wonderful places. Although it was made clear that I was not responsable for them, the buzz kill factor still loomed large.
First stop was Consuegra. Famous for it's iconic windmills made famous in Cervante's epic Don Quijote, Consuegra also hosts an early medieval fortress that has changed hands more times than an old penny, or as it would have been then...
un duro During the medieval period La Mancha or old castille was undergoing a powerstruggle between the Moorish powers that had held most of the Iberian peninsular since the 8th century...and the up-start Visiogothic Kings from the North of Spain who intended on re-conquering the Peninsular from the Muslim Arabs. Naturally therefore, defence was top priority, and as our guide detailled the many ways of frustrating a possible attack on the fortress I couldn't help but chuckle to myself "they don't make forts like they used to"...the many children around Consuegra
View from the Fort across the plain me did not find me funny. Come to think of it...I'm sure I've done better too.
First of all, after climbing an almost perpendicular hill upon which the fortress is agressively crowned, the invading force would then have to scale an 8x 4 foot outer wall under attack. ONly once they were over this outer wall would they realise that it was a bluff..and that they had climbed into a path that ran directly around the real outer protective wall. While they figured out how to get through the Outer gate, those inside had a chance to get to safety while soldiers rained down weaponry on the invaders.
Once through the outer gate they would find an empty courtyard and the inner fort gate. The gate consisted of a door, portcullis, door, and another portcullis. Once at this last portcullis soldiers would escape out an obvious door that (unbeknownst to the invaders) would lead them straight back out into the courtyard. The invaders would have to choose whether to follow the enemy...or continue taking the fort. (Interesting, each wooden door had an inner iron core which left traditional battery or burning methods quite ineffective)
If they chose the fort
they would have had to contend with yet another door and portcullis in order to ascend into the inner fort. While doing so, they may have found themselves dosed in molten tar that would have been poured through the incredibly thick stone ceiling above their heads in specially designed holes leading to the fort above.
I do believe that if they managed to surpass al of these obstacles..they would have deserved to take the fort. however all is not fair in Love and War and often, by the time the invaders had climbed to the head of the tower, they would have found their target vanished out of a hidden exit platform that led to a hidden tower...escaped..only to come back with a bigger force and take the fortress again.
...And I can't even get my baby sister to stay out of my room!
From the top of the fortress the countryside stretches far away in rich strips and patches of turmeric yellow and saffron red..occasionally seperated by deep green borders until it collides with the cool distant hills. The whole view evokes a delicious taste upon the senses. Fitting, perhaps that COnsuegra is one the best producers
Consuegra
consuegra literally translated "with mother-in-law" of the higly prized Spanish Saffron.
In the other direction a spine of white windmills curve across the hill. Although these 7 Windmills are far too young to be the iconic "giants" of Cervante's epic, the inspiration, they say, came from their predecesors which were replaced when their fame was still unknown. Looking at them from any perspective...planted above the flat surroundings, the wind howling ferociously and continuously, they have a stoic, and paternal presence on the nearby land.
Segovia,
a beautiful medieval town in Castilla y León and home of the family that spawned Isabella La Catolica. Along with her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella forcefully replaced her brother as Queen of Castille and led the last final push against the Moors in the
Reconquista a constant struggleby the Christian Visiogothic Kings to reclaim Spain from the Islamic Moors.
Aside from it being one of the coldest places I have visited so far, Segovia has a fairytale charm to it. For one, it's castle has to be as inspiring if not more so than the fairytale castle NEUSCHWANSTEIN in Bavaria. A stone drawbridge entrance drops down over 100 fet into a waterless gorge
Consuegra Windmill
One of Don Quijote's seven "giants" below and a central tower of over 100 steps take you up to a tower that would have allowed me to see for miles upon miles if only I could have openned my eyes in the unbelievable gales. In the end, I took out my camera and begain loking out off the tower through the lense!
As well as the castle there is also an impressive Cathedral that looks out onto
Plaza Mayor and is adorned by what seems to be thousands of stalagmites rising up from it's roofs. Although impressive, it was not the most welcoming place of worship that I had ever seem and I wondered how arbitrary worship would have had to have been for the architect to be able to make the centre of worship look so dominating, univiting and to be frank...frightful.
But if Segovia's Cathedral is not to everyone's taste I dont think that anyone could fault the beatuiful and awe-inspiring Aqueduct that runs through Segovia centre. Just walking along the main shopping street the buildings part just enough to alow for another Plaza that is bathed with the architectural wonder of a fully intact and absolutely enormous Roman Aqueduct.
If
Consuegra
If they wont listen to me I may as well get a good picture oout of them! there was no other reason for visiting Segovia...I would go again just to sit in that Plaza, even in the freezing cold and wind...with a cup of
cafe con leche and marvel at one of the smaller wonders of the world.
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