Ávila

In the 5th century BC the Vettones held the hill, calling it Obila, "high mountain", and built one of their strongest forts there; Bronze Age stone statues of boars have been found nearby. Under Rome the town took a regular plan, with two main streets crossing at a forum, and tradition holds that Secundus, its first bishop, brought Christianity in the 1st century. After Visigothic rule and the Muslim conquest it became an almost empty no man's land, until Raymond of Burgundy resettled it around 1088 and the walls were begun in 1090.

Medieval Ávila was a frontier town with one of the largest Jewish communities in Castile by the late 13th century, which ended with the expulsion of 1492. The city prospered under the Catholic Monarchs, and in 1520 it was the first meeting place of the Holy Junta of the Comuneros, which drafted a proto-constitution in the cathedral. In the 16th century Teresa of Ávila founded the first convent of her reformed Discalced Carmelites here, in 1562.

From the 17th century the city declined until it had only about 4,000 people. The railway from Madrid to the French border brought modest growth in the 19th century, and in 1936 the town fell quickly to the rebel side in the Civil War. Adolfo Suárez, the first democratically elected prime minister after Franco, came from here. UNESCO listed the old town and its churches outside the walls in 1985.

Ávila calls itself the city of stones and saints, and religion runs through its identity. Teresa of Ávila, mystic, writer and the first woman named a Doctor of the Church, is the town's most famous historical resident, and her convents, her festival and even the city's sweets bear her name. The city keeps many active convents.

The writer Azorín called Ávila "perhaps the most 16th-century town in Spain", and Orson Welles named it the place he would most like to live, calling it a "strange, tragic place"; he filmed scenes of Chimes at Midnight here. The walls, lit at night, are the largest fully illuminated monument in the world.

Holy Week, of International Tourist Interest, is the first public festival after the winter, with processions along the walls. San Segundo, the patron, is honoured on 2 May with a pilgrimage to his hermitage, and the summer fiestas fall in mid-July. The Santa Teresa festival around 15 October is the biggest, with a proclamation in the Plaza Mayor, concerts, bullfights, chocolate with churros and processions. Sport centres on Óbila CB, the basketball team, and Real Ávila football club.

About 59,000 people live in the municipality (INE, 2025). The city has grown strongly in modern times, as new districts such as Las Hervencias went up around the old town with a hospital, a stadium, sports grounds and schools, and the population roughly doubled.

As the provincial capital the city is the centre of administration and services for the province, and tourism draws visitors to the walls and convents. The Catholic University of Ávila and three colleges of the University of Salamanca — a polytechnic school, a college of education and tourism and a school of nursing — bring students. The city has two industrial estates, Las Hervencias and Vicolozano.

Life inside the walls is quiet, with the old town closed to private cars, while most residents live in the newer neighbourhoods outside. The climate shapes the year: long, cold winters at over 1,100 metres, and a summer of festivals and evening walks below the illuminated walls.

Ávila's signature dish is the chuletón de Ávila, a grilled ribeye steak best eaten rare, cut from the Avileña-Negra ibérica, an indigenous black cattle breed known well beyond the province for its meat. Judías del barco and patatas revolconas are other typical dishes of the town and region, along with mollejas de ternera.

The best-known sweet is the yemas de Santa Teresa, small orange balls of egg yolk served in white paper and made in honour of the saint. The traditional pastry shop La Flor de Castilla always sells them; other bakeries make them as yemas de Ávila or simply yemas. Hornazo, a bread filled with sausage, bacon, meat and eggs, is eaten here as in Salamanca, and cochinillo, roast suckling pig, is found in the city and in Arévalo.

Most restaurants line Calle de San Segundo along the walls and the lanes leading to the Plaza del Mercado Chico. Castilian food here is meaty, and dinner is served late.