On to Segovia

"It is the center of the most ravishing and troubling, sensuous and mystical of all Spanish spectacles – Holy Week in Seville." – Fuentes, from the Buried Mirror











August '18


The small old cities outlaying beyond Madrid, Avila and Segovia, are geographical and architectural impressions of a distant past that has been so well preserved as to create the illusion that history is still alive today. One says that it may be illusion because we are never quite sure – especially here from the states in which the cathedral is not part of our cultural tapestry – whether we are merely picking through facade or investing in something that is real. As we visited Avila one cannot help but feel this tug and pull all the way through. Home of St. Theresa, a sainted Carmelite who pushed mightily for stricter reform on the conduct of the monastery of the time, is without a doubt highly revered – she was reformer, participant, writer, missionary and creator of multiple other convents. Yet what a strange impression it leaves on the traveler to see that all of the religious iconography and all of the building, books, statuary, have only visual fodder for tourists. The town of Avila is a fortress and overlooks the valley, walls substantial, and walking platforms for Roman soldiers to watch for the advance of peering tribes. Seemingly to protect the religious contents that live inside. In America, we may have a tendency to build back over such ramparts and start anew. Older churches tend to blend in with the community but the neighborhood and the church seem to be two separate distinct features of our history. In Avila and Segovia the cathedral and monastery are the community and we can see a hundred little instances of the hints of life at that time. The aqueducts in Segovia tell us that water had been added into the cultural priorities of defense and religion and whatever farming or herding might have been the chief pursuits of that time. The castle at the end of the town reminds us of rulership and another instance of a separation between the religious center and the administrative necessity, obviously in charge of the military, fed by farmers surrounding. At the least, these walks and these observations remind us of the elemental nature of life in the Spanish village.