Nauigatio in Auulam

Yep, I returned to Ávila (Roman Avula) this weekend, to the Three Cultures Medieval Fair.

It was fun and very instructive, as I managed to test a mail armor (lorica hamata) and do some bow firing, and visit the local museum, which I managed to miss the first time I went.

Ávila is a very nice city, declared Humanity Patrimony by the UNESCO, with a full medieval wall which is mostly walkable.

Here's the northern wall at the West side of the city. You can easily see (and imagine, right at the far end of the picture) the amount of free space and visibility they enjoyed in old times: it's all basically plain until you hit with the Gredos Mountain Range, far in the West. Down there, crossing North-South, it's a river, the Adaja, which flows down to the Duero, one of the biggest in Spain, which set the separation between the Gallaecia and Lusitania in the western side of Hispania until the creation of Portugal county pretty late in the Medieval times. The river is easily crossed nowadays, with a couple of bridges and little water, but I guess it was wetter in the old times.

Here's the inside view of the Carmen Door (where Carmen is the name of one of the most important virgins in Spain, patroness of sailors, among other important roles). Right at the left side is the Tower of Guzmán (which you cannot see because of that signal), which I visited the last time, it's the tower that defended the door. You can also see a espadaña, which are apparently common in this regions and others in Castilia (I have never seen one of those without the corresponding rest-of-the-church attached before Ávila).

And here you have the wall and door from the other side, a bit later, after a short aerostatic globe trip... :-) The quality is not very good, but my camera deals badly with poor light conditions. The espadaña is at the left side, a bit far away in the picture.

This is the wall on the East side, just in front the Great Square or St. Teresa's Sq., one of the biggest squares in the city, and the southmost door in the East side (where the other two are closer to the cathedral). I did go all the way up there during my first trip and I can tell you it's pretty high and impressive.


From the museum I got this picture of a couple of swords, an antler sword and a falcata iberica from the celtiberic population that lived there in pre-Roman times, the Vettons. They are beautiful, aren't they? I got lots of pictures, it's been hard to select just a few so the main page loads reasonably fast... :-P (I'm not sure what the other thing is, I seem to recall it may be part of the sword sheath, or a cavalry thingie, but...

Lastly, as a bonus, here you have a picture of the archers' pre-exhibition training (warming-up) doing a defense doulble line in three times (set, charge and go!)... It was pretty impressive watching the targets look like a hedgehodge's butt in an instant; it provides for a nice live demo of the defensive capabilities of archer lines: certainly effective!

And that's all for now. So much travel and no play, makes Excalibor a sloooooow writer. Not really a lot more words on Revolt! to report, but I'm on it (and on the driving license, and, and, and... argh! :-P )

Be well. Kallisti!