Segovia

The City of Segovia

Today I had my first excursion. Every saturday my school has these trips planned where we take a bus and go visit a city outside of Madrid. That city today was the beautiful Segovia which is one of the oldest and most historical places in Spain. At the bottom you will find a video of my trip as well as a few pictures that I took. I will be posting a complete album on facebook...so make sure youu check that out. Here is a description of what you will see in the video and what I saw:

The first thing we saw was the famous "Aqueduct" which Segovia is known for. It was built at the end of 1st to early 2nd century AD by the Romans to bring water from the river and is completely man-made out of granite blocks. (I only took photos).

AQUEDUCT

The Cathedral of Segovia stands in the city's central plaza. Constructed in the late Gothic style between 1522 and 1577, it is widely considered Europe's last great Gothic cathedral. (Unfortunately my battery died so I only got a photo from the outside and a short snippet video from inside). 

Cathedral of Segovia

My favorite visit was the Alcazar Castle. The Alcázar is perched at the tip of the promontory and towers over the countryside below. Like many fortifications in Spain, it started off as an Arab fort. At the end of the 11th century it was conquered by king Alfonso VI. During the Middle Ages, the Alcazar of Segovia was the favourite residence of kings of Castile, and almost each king added new parts to the building, transforming the original fortress into a courtier residence and prolonging the construction of the castle till 16th century, when King Philip II added the conical spires and the slate roofs. A fire in 1862 destroyed part of the roofs, but they were restored in the very same style they were built more than 300 years ago.

ALCAZAR CASTLE

The last visit we made was to the Church of Vera Cruz (and I wasnt able to capture any photos/videos because of my battery). But this church wasn't really a church. It was used as a sanctuary and they would drag the dead bodies of their loved ones and rest them outside. It was like a passing of the dead as they believed they would be "going with christ". The professor said that everytime he has brought students there they find a piece of human bone. I found several!! It was quite interesting. Inside they described how the church was founded by the Knights Templar (think of the Da Vinci Code) and how it was said that here was one of the first stops that the cross of Christ made. This place has been featured many times on several history programs and etc..

Overall the visit was amazing and beautiful. You all know how much I love history lol. Enjoy the pictures and video and I promise to take some photos of Madrid in the next few days...