Cuatro Postes Viewpoint

On the left bank of the River Adaja, facing the city, stands the humilladero (wayside shrine) of San Sebastián, which everyone knows as the Cuatro Postes. It is Ávila's viewpoint par excellence: from here you see the whole wall, with its towers, from one end to the other. Access is open and free.

What it is

A humilladero is a small chapel or cross at the edge of a town. This one was built in 1566 and consists of four monolithic Doric columns joined by an architrave bearing the city's coat of arms, with a granite cross in the centre. Some authors argue it was raised where there was a small temple in Roman times. Another tradition links it to Saint Teresa: here, the story goes, her uncle Francisco de Cepeda found the girl and her brother Rodrigo when they had run away from home to go to the land of the Moors and suffer martyrdom.

What you have in front of you is one of the best-preserved medieval walled enclosures: 2,516 metres of perimeter, 87 towers and 33 hectares enclosed, with walls about 3 metres thick and 12 high on average. The apse of the cathedral, the cimorro, is part of that same stretch, on the east side.

When to go

The best time is dusk, when day gives way to night and the wall is lit up. The blue hour, just after the sun sets, leaves the wall glowing with still some light in the sky. It is also worth it by day, above all if you have walked along the wall walkway and want to see from outside the route you have taken. Allow half an hour, enough time to look, take photos and walk back down.

Getting there

You can get there by car or on foot. On foot, leave the old town by the Adaja bridge, cross the river and climb the hill along the Salamanca road. Dogs are no problem, because it is a public space; keep yours on a lead along the road.

What to combine it with

The most rounded plan is to walk the wall walkway, which has one of its entrances at the Adaja bridge, in the morning or afternoon, and finish the day here. Before or after, the Basilica of San Vicente and the cathedral are on the east side, at the other end of the wall.

For dinner afterwards inside the old town, there is the Hostería Las Cancelas, between the cathedral and Plaza de Santa Teresa, or the Parador restaurant, by the Puerta del Carmen, on the north side. If you are travelling by motorhome, the Aparkarea area is at the foot of the north stretch of the wall.