Easter in Ávila has been designated as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest. The processions are held with sobriety and solemnity, and religious devotion is in the air. Parades run alongside the city walls and around the older buildings. Easter highlights include the Stations of the Cross, the Seven Last Words sermon and procession of El Pradillo.

The feasts honouring the local patron saints offer a great chance to get deep into Ávila’s customs and traditions. The most outstanding are the feasts of Saint Secundus on 2 May and Saint Teresa on 15 October. The streets get filled with big-headed figures, traditional dances and religious services. The fiesta reaches its peak with the bullfights, concerts and firework shows.

Rooted in the coexistence of three cultures in the Iberian Peninsula, local cuisine makes use of the diversity and quality of the local produce.

The most typical, and tastier, local products are legumes, especially cowpeas, white or red beans from El Barco de Ávila with designation of origin, and chickpeas from La Moraña. Going out for tapas can be a great plan in Ávila. Tip of advice: grab a few tapas with pork loin or chorizo.

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The restaurants in Ávila serve homemade food like patatas revolconas (dish made with potatoes, chorizo and bacon) and meat – roasted, grilled or charcoal-grilled. The star dishes, though, are suckling pig and T-bone steak, but you’ll also want to taste good fish caught in the rivers Tormes and Alberche. Fried, baked or pickled trout can be mouth-watering. Wonderful wines are those made in Cebreros and El Tiemblo.

If you have a preference for sweetmeats, you should try yemas (egg yolks). There are other choices, too: huesillos (sweet sticks), torrijas (French toast), amarguillos (bitter almond cookies), natillas (milk and egg custard), empiñonados (small cakes made with marzipan and pine nuts) or jesuitas (sweet pastries filled with cream).

Some of the restaurants where you can savour the typical dishes of the area are La Tahona de Sotillo and El Rincón del Jabugo, famous for its T-bone steak from Avila and owned by the famous ham cutter, Floren Sanchidrián. DegustÁvila is a tasting menu for two, featuring typical dishes prepared with traditional local ingredients.

A few kilometres from Sistema Central, on the border of the northern plateau, Ávila was in dispute between the Christian kingdoms of León and Castile, and the Muslim-ruled kingdoms of the south from the eight to the tenth century. The walls, which remain a landmark of Ávila to this day, were erected in this period.

When Ávila passed to the hands of the Crown of Castile, the city enjoyed a period of prosperity and had a vote in the Cortes (parliament), just like Segovia and Toledo, but its golden age only came in the early sixteenth century. Two of the most prominent Spanish intellectuals and theologians – as well as extraordinary poets –, Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross, founders of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, were born in Ávila.

In the seventeenth century, Ávila experienced notable population loss, so much so that in the nineteenth century, Romantic writers saw it as a symbol of Spanish decline. Currently, Ávila is the capital of one of the nine provinces that make the Region of Castile-León.

• By car: Ávila is a 60-minute drive from Madrid if you take the A-6 motorway.

• By bus: The journey from Estación Sur de Autobuses (Méndez Álvaro) takes 90 minutes.

• By train: The train from Madrid - Chamartín - Clara Campoamor Station arrives in Ávila in 85 minutes

Links of Interest:

• Official Website Ávila City Council
• Guided Visits – Ávila Tourism

Not to be mised: 

• Did you know that there are also remains of Arab and Christian walls in Madrid? Visit the Christian Wall of Madrid and the Arab Wall.