Medieval Walls of Avila

Ávila, Spain

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.

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Address

Calle Tostado 4, Ávila, Spain
See all sites in Ávila

Details

Founded: 11th century
Category: Castles and fortifications in Spain

Rating

4.8/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Dr. Olena Berezovska (13 months ago)
It's amazing how much you can see walking along the wall around the old city. This is a long walk and requires 2-3 hours of your time, depending on how much you want to see.
Iain Nash (2 years ago)
I went to Ávila on business. Everyone talked about the city walls before I went. I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn't read any touristic literature, I just booked my hotel and went...but when I saw the walls, I was seriously impressed!! The Muralla de Ávila or Ávila City Walls are like the biggest castle you ever saw... and some of the best preserved. They are HUGE. You can't walk along the ramparts the whole way round but you can circumnavigate the walls on foot and it's well worth doing. I walked the walls one evening and I did a flying visit to the ramparts on my last day before flying back home. I walked along all the walls that I was allowed to walk before getting sent down by the security guards as they were closing!!! The bits you can walk are not connected but you can buy one ticket which gets you into/onto both. It's not wheelchair friendly and large parts of the wall have wooden privacy screens erected on the inside of the wall to protect the modesty of residents. Some of the tower ramparts are sealed off I presume for the same reason - so you can't go playing Peeping Tom and looking into residential apartments. The above said, you can really get a feel for medieval Spain up there and quite frankly, I've never seen such an impressive feat of engineering. Well worth a visit.
Ricardo Sandez (2 years ago)
Amazing walls with a lot of history and a beautiful thing to behold, especially from outside. If you're visiting the inside, you'll get some nice views of the town thought. Highly recommended, however, I'm giving them 4 starts because a big segment of the wall is closed and not maintained, you can see the grass growing on it.
Katrina Gibbs (2 years ago)
Great views of Avila and a nice way to feel the history of the city. It is very hot in the afternoon/evening. I recommend going early morning.
The K Green Show (2 years ago)
Awesome to see the ramparts and walk the protective walls of the city! There is a fee to walk the wall up top and allow you to take some great photos of the city. The walk back around is not for the faint of heart!
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