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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
Day 13 (Sunday, April 5th 2009)
Initially my plan for the day was to leave Toledo and head north towards Segovia, first stopping at La Granja Palace. However, the night before I decided to also add in a visit to the Valley of the Fallen as it was within close driving distance to both Segovia and La Granja.
My first stop of the three was the
Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos), which is a monument located in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The immense monument was built per the direction of dictator Francisco Franco as a memorial for the victims of Spain's Civil War, which occurred from 1936-1939. The building is comprised of a basilica (largest in the world), an underground crypt (houses the remains of 40,000 victims) and a 500 foot-tall granite cross, which marks the top of the monument. Construction of the building began in 1940 and was carried out by 20,000 prison workers, many of which had been convicted of political crimes against the Nationalists (Franco's regime). These men dug 220,000 tons of granite out of the hill underneath the cross in order to form an underground basilica. They then used the stones to erect a giant cross. Selecting those imprisoned men (many of which belonged to the Republican regime) for the work was considered highly controversial, for obvious reasons. Many Republicans claimed that being forced to participate in the building of the memorial was punishment for defending their political ideas against the Nationalists.
I was able to see the huge structure from miles and miles away as I approached it on the road. After parking the car, I headed up several flights of stairs in order to reach the entrance to the memorial. Interestingly, I had read that the stairs were grouped into sets of ten, which was meant to symbolize the Ten Commandments. However, Rick Steves made a great point when he brought up the ironic commandment of "Thou shall not kill". Regardless, the monument was extremely impressive and dramatic, architecturally speaking. As I walked into the interior of the basilica the temperature immediately dropped at least 10 or 15 degrees and my eyes had to quickly adjust to the lack of light. The basilica was 300 feet long and was filled with utter silence, the only exception being the occasional haunting sounds from the resident boys choir as mass was occurring during my visit. As a result, I was unable to see the front of the basilica including the alter and tombs. I didn't spend too long inside the basilica as I felt strangely out of place; there was definitely a certain chill in the air that didn't feel quite right to me. I'm sure that was a result of the massive amount of tragedy that occurred during the horrible events of the Spanish Civil War.
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
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| Valley of the Fallen |
From Valley of the Fallen I headed to San Ildefonso, where I visited its palace. The
Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso is a "small" baroque palace that was built by King Philip V, who happened to be the grandson of King Louis XIV of France. Philip was homesick for France and Versailles, so the palace and its gardens in San Ildefonso bear a striking resemblance (albeit, much smaller) to the more famous one near Paris. After entering the palace I found out that guided tours were offered, but only in Spanish, so I walked through the rooms by myself. The interior of the palace was ho-hum and nothing too spectacular although it was of course beautiful. Aside from having to navigate around the many huge tour groups another annoying aspect I encountered was the psychotic security guards, which were located in every single room. Although it was quite obvious that I was not touching any of the furniture and other accessories, I was starred at as though I might run off with one of the crystal vases. At times, it was downright uncomfortable to be in the same room with the guards as they were literally breathing down my back. I'm not sure why there were so many guards and why it was deemed necessary to follow me as though I was a thief, but it definitely didn't make for an enjoyable experience. Towards the end of the tour I walked quickly through the rooms without stopping as I couldn't wait to get outside and escape the security guards. Thankfully, the gardens were much more interesting and pleasant to walk through than the interior. As it was only early spring there weren't many flowers in bloom, but I was still impressed with the many fanciful fountains and decorative statues.
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
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| Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso |
After leaving La Granja Palace, I drove just slightly north to
Segovia. I was happy to see that the city was much smaller than Toledo and Cordoba had been, so I was hopeful that the drive to my hotel would be easier than my horrid experience in Cordoba. Unfortunately, I did encounter some slight confusion as the city was undergoing a lot of construction, but I found the hotel quickly enough. I had chosen to stay at
Hostal Don Jamie due to its positive reviews from Rick Steves and Trip Advisor, and also because it was located just outside of the city walls. The room was decent and because it was located on the third floor, I had a great view of the charming street in front of the hotel. Just as the reviews had indicated, it was literally just a few minutes walk from the famous aqueduct. At a cost of only 63 per night, I thought this place was a great find!
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| Hostal Don Jamie in Segovia. |
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| Hostal Don Jamie in Segovia. |
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| Hostal Don Jamie in Segovia. |
As I was very excited to see Segovia, I quickly left my hotel room and headed for the
aqueduct. Segovia was once a military base for the Roman army and as a result, needed a lot of water to supply the inhabitants of the city. A nine-mile long aqueduct was eventually built to channel water from the Rio Frio (cold river) into the city. Of those original nine miles only 2,500 feet are currently exposed for all to see at the entrance to the city walls. I was shocked to see that the imposing walls of the aqueduct were 100 feet high! I was also amazed by the dozens and dozens of photogenic arches (166 total covering two levels). While I had seen many forms of Roman architecture in Italy, I had never before seen anything quite like this. The architecture and lines in the structure of the aqueduct provided an incredible backdrop to the streets in Segovia. It was very impressive to think of the work that went into forming the 20,000 granite blocks (without mortar, I might add) into a massive structure that contained rounded arches. Even more impressive though, is the fact that the aqueduct is 2,000 years old and is still standing in awesome condition!
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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| Segovia's Aqueduct |
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