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2020-10-27T02:47:46.904Z


From Arévalo to Fontiveros, a getaway through the Avila region of La Moraña, land of mystics, Mudejar, legumes and tostón


La Moraña, north of Ávila, is a region where legumes and mystics grow well.

The volume of the sky weighs more than the earth in those dry plains barely sliced ​​by ghostly rivers, authentic

wadis

Saracens (ramblas), dry most of the time.

Sometimes the landscape is distracted by patches of pine forest, which are oases for traveling birds, as well as the many steppe lagoons, navas, lavajos and wetlands.

Moraña, "land of the Moors".

Mestizo land where hastily baptized builders embodied their trade in brick Romanesque churches and adobe and mud palaces.

The Moorish Mudejar is a good excuse to explore its villages, as are its ovens and small stores where the churrascado tostón, irrefutable proof of Christianity, and the autumn chanterelles invite you to extend short afternoons to the love of the wood fire.

enlarge photo Cova Fernández

The regional head is Arévalo, the second most populated city in the province of Ávila, with just over 8,000 residents.

A city (it has the title) that now boasts a railroad, highways and flour traffic, in the past it was one of the important squares on the Castile board.

Queen Isabel, the Catholic, lived her childhood and adolescence here, along with her brother Alfonso, her widowed mother, Isabel de Portugal, and her grandmother Isabel de Barcelos.

But they did not live in the rock castle that we now see on a spur surrounded by the Adaja and Arevalillo rivers;

They lived in some Royal Houses that existed in the current Plaza del Real, a large house that became a convent and was unscrupulously demolished a few months after Franco died.

This square is accessed through the

Puerta de Alcocer

, which is one of the remains of the old wall, and where the tourist office is housed.

Although the most striking, and one of the most beautiful and authentic in Castilla y León, is the

Plaza de la Villa

, the center of the old walled enclosure.

Bordered by rustic arcades, two churches preside over its ends, that of

Santa María

and that of

San Martín

.

The latter, with two Mudejar towers that look like twins, houses a cultural center.

The Santa María, with a brick apse and blind arches, is a good example of Moorish Mudejar.

Inside there are Romanesque wall paintings and Gothic inscriptions.

Next to it, the so-called

Casa de los Sexmos

-

former

tax office - houses the

Museum of History

(920 30 17 77).

enlarge photo Cereal Museum, installed in the castle of Arévalo.

Carlos Pascual

The tower of Santa María is the most slender of the 14 churches that Arévalo had, and that today offer a haughty urban profile to those who pass from afar on the highway.

Calle de Santa María crosses the bottom of the tower and leads to the castle.

After serving various uses, the fortress now houses a

Cereal Museum

(920 30 00 05), a display of some 200 varieties of grain.

Falsifying history a bit, the castle served as the setting for the famous television series

Isabel

.

Statue of Isabel la Católica in Arevalo.

c.

paschal

In this city, which had a very large aljama or Jewish quarter and a morería, it is striking that the main claim, apart from the Mudejar and antique dealers, is the tostón.

In other words, the roast suckling pig.

For more than a decade, the Tostón Days have been celebrated, encouraged by local figones, some of them legendary;

such as

La Pinilla

(Figones, 1; 920 30 00 63), where the famous Almiro stood up to Candido's Segovian lambs.

There are other no less veteran ovens, such as

Asador las Cubas

(asadorlascubas.com) or

El Figón de Arévalo

(elfigondearevalo.com).

Newer, but just as recommended, is the table (and 10 rooms) of the Posada Real Los Cinco Linajes (loscincolinajes.com), in a square that does not seem like it, that of Arrabal, a central junction of streets.

The monument to the Tostón stands there, and there are butchers and shops where you can buy sausages or the precious vegetables of the land: fine chickpeas from Velayos, green beans or cinnamon beans.

Not to mention the traditional pastries.

Less than six leagues (29 kilometers) to the west, Madrigal de las Altas Torres has the most beautiful name in Spain, according to Dámaso Alonso and the poets of his generation.

The fence of walls and towers is still quite complete, with four doors open to the four cardinal points.

Guide

  • Arévalo Tourist Office

    (Arco de Alcocer; ciudad.arevalo.es).

  • Madrigal de las Altas Torres Tourist Office

    (Plaza del Cristo; madrigaldelasaltastorres.es).

  • Palace of Juan II

    (Plaza del Cristo, Madrigal; 920 32 00 50).

  • Lagunas de la Moraña Center

    (lagunaseloso.es).

  • Tourism of Avila

    (avilaturismo.com).

In its spacious

Plaza del Cristo

is the

palace of Juan II

, later converted into a convent and still inhabited by a dozen nuns, who themselves guide the visits.

There is the bedroom where Isabel la Católica was born.

In front of the palace, the

Royal Hospital

, which was built by the first wife of Juan II.

A harmonious building that now houses the tourist office, a small museum dedicated to Don Vasco de Quiroga, a countryman and bishop of the Mexican Michoacán, and a brief nature classroom.

At the top of the town - recently declared an asset of cultural interest - the

parish of San Nicolás

, with a tower that can be seen for miles around, preserves the font where Isabel was baptized, as well as a superb Mudejar coffered ceiling and alabaster tombs .

On the outskirts,

the ruins of the Augustinian convent

host the occasional summer concert;

Fray Luis de León, another poet with a biblical accent, died in that monastery.

Land of Saint John of the Cross

But the great mystical poet of our letters, Juan de Yepes, that is, San Juan de la Cruz, was born in another small town further south, Fontiveros.

There his statue shines with an inscription that sounds like blasphemy ("Lord, suffer and be despised by You").

The provincial council built a few years ago the modern

Espacio San Juan de la Cruz

, which is unfortunately now closed.

The best tribute to the saint could well be the San Juan stew prepared by María José Rodríguez at

Mesón Juan de Yepes

(Corralada, 5; 625 03 35 44), next to the huge convent built over the poet's birthplace.

Leaving behind Mudejar churches and some castle, in

El Oso

another unexpected face of La Moraña awaits,

Las Lagunillas

, with ornithological observatories next to the water to spy on the more than 150 species of birds that land in this wetland: cranes, geese, blue ducks … The

Lagunas de la Moraña Center was

recently inaugurated in the town

, which can be visited (by appointment).

On the way back to Arévalo, the road runs parallel to the Arevalillo river valley, a beautiful spot with contrasting reliefs and unsuspected greenery.

Find inspiration for your next trips on our Facebook and Twitter and Instragram or subscribe here to the El Viajero Newsletter.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-27

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