The Wall Walk of Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo keeps its whole enclosure: the medieval wall and, outside it, the bastions, moats and ravelins added for the war with Portugal. You can walk along the top, on the wall walk, round the city, with the Águeda valley on one side and the rooftops and the cathedral on the other. It is free and takes an hour at a leisurely pace. The town council proposes it as an easy walk along the complete circuit of the fortification.

A little history

The oldest wall, the one you see from inside the city, is from the second half of the 12th century and was ordered by Ferdinand II of León during the resettlement. After the war with Portugal of 1641 a second outer enclosure was built, which disappeared at the start of the 18th century. Then the medieval wall was adapted to artillery: it was lowered, its battlements removed, gun embrasures opened and moats, sentry boxes, bastions and ravelins built. From this comes the city's star shape, following Vauban's model. In 1812, in the fighting between the French and the English, the small breach beside the Puerta de Amayuelas was opened, where General Robert Craufurd died.

The gates

There were nine between gates and postern gates, and six remain. From the castle, they are the Colada, the most direct to the river and the bridge, restored in the 1990s; the Sancti Spiritus, perhaps opened in the 16th century; the Amayuelas, enlarged in 1954 and called the Puerta Nueva since then; the Conde, on the north stretch, which linked with the San Francisco suburb; the Sol, to the east, restored in 1970; and the Santiago, to the south, whose restoration of 2002 brought old moats to light. The Puerta del Rey is bricked up.

How to do it

You climb up by several ramps and staircases beside the gates; the most practical is the one at the Puerta del Conde, where the fortifications interpretation centre is, which is worth seeing first to understand what you are walking on. The town council has published seven podcasts on the wall, the guardhouses, the barracks, the cathedral and the breaches, the castle and the San Francisco suburb, to listen to as you walk. Some stretches have no parapet: with small children, hold their hand, and with a dog, keep it on a lead.

You can go all the way round or do just one stretch and go down to see the castle of Enrique II or the cathedral up close, which still shows the wounds of the War of Independence. To go down to the Águeda and the Puente Mayor, of Roman origin, leave by the Puerta de la Colada.