Known by the Castilians as “The City of Saints and Stones,” Avila was founded by Celtic tribes, later becoming a Roman outpost before being seized by the Visigoths.
It embraced Christianity in the 1st century AD, thanks to Saint Segundo, the first bishop of Avila, and then converted to Islam from the 8th to the 11th century.
In 1090, after the Muslims were expelled from Castile, the ancient stone walls began to be constructed around the city. This 2.5 km long wall features over 80 semi-cylindrical towers and 9 majestic gates, still standing today. Avila boasts numerous religious structures, especially the grand Gothic cathedral built in the late 12th to early 13th century, with arrow slits above the choir reminding us of the city’s defensive function.
The Romanesque church of San Vicente is essentially a museum of late 12th-century Romanesque sculptures. Within the San Tomas monastery (late 15th century) lie the tombs of Tomas de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, and Don Juan, the only son of the Christian monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.
The Incarnation Monastery was built on the site of the former home of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Spanish nun and mystic from Avila, who reformed the Carmelite order and left behind masterpieces of spiritual poetry. Avila, along with its Romanesque churches in the outskirts, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.