The Chapel of Saint Germanus (Chapelle Saint-Germain) is one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin Peninsula. It is a small building with walls built from small pieces of shale arranged in a herringbone pattern. The chapel consists of a short nave, and transepts and a choir each formed from an identical apse with half domed roofs. This tri-lobate plan, which is unusual, is the result of a reconstruction in the 9th or 10th century on remains of a palaeo-Christian basilica which has been revealed by archaeological excavations. In the 17th century, the chapel was topped by a tower which in turn replaced an older tower structure.
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The city walls of Avila were built in the 11th century to protect the citizens from the Moors. They have been well maintained throughout the centuries and are now a major tourist attraction as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors can walk around about half of the length of the walls.
The layout of the city is an even quadrilateral with a perimeter of 2,516 m. Its walls, which consist in part of stones already used in earlier constructions, have an average thickness of 3 m. Access to the city is afforded by nine gates of different periods; twin 20 m high towers, linked by a semi-circular arch, flank the oldest ones, Puerta de San Vicente and Puerta del Alcázar.