Segovia

Segovia began as a Celtic settlement on its ridge above the Eresma and passed to Rome; it may be the site of a battle of 75 BC in which Metellus Pius defeated the forces of Sertorius. The Romans left the aqueduct, built in the late 1st or early 2nd century to carry water from the mountains, which still dominates the city. By the 11th century the site was largely empty, and after Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085 Segovia was resettled with Christians from the north and from beyond the Pyrenees.

Its position on trading routes made it a centre of the wool and cloth trade, and the late Middle Ages were something of a golden age, with a growing Jewish community and a powerful textile industry. Isabella was proclaimed Queen of Castile here in December 1474. The city joined the Revolt of the Comuneros under Juan Bravo, and despite their defeat the boom lasted: Segovia had 27,000 people in 1594. A century later it had only 8,000, sharing the decline of the Castilian cities.

Attempts to revive the textile trade, including a royal wool company founded in 1763, failed, but in 1764 the Royal School of Artillery, the first military academy in Spain, opened in the city, and it is still there. French troops sacked Segovia in 1808, and a fire gutted the Alcázar in 1862 before it was rebuilt. The poet Antonio Machado lived here from 1919 to 1932. The old city and the aqueduct were listed by UNESCO in 1985.

Segovia's identity rests on its monuments and on legend. One legend says the devil built the aqueduct, and a copy of the Capitoline Wolf, a gift from Rome for the aqueduct's 2,000th anniversary in 1974, stands in front of it. Other local legends tell of the rooks of the Vera Cruz church, of María del Salto, a Jewish woman saved by the Virgin from a fall at La Fuencisla, and of the "house of crime" in San Millán.

The calendar is busy. In Zamarramala the festival of Santa Águeda in February, recorded since 1227, honours the village women who by legend helped retake the Alcázar. Holy Week, of National Tourist Interest, brings processions of the neighbourhood brotherhoods from the cathedral to the aqueduct. The Virgin of the Fuencisla, patroness of the city and since 1916 Captain General of Artillery, is escorted by cadets from her sanctuary to the cathedral each September, and Castilian jotas are danced in the Azoguejo. San Frutos, the patron, is honoured on 25 October.

The Royal School of Artillery gives the city a military tradition, and IE University and a campus of the University of Valladolid bring students. The city hosts an edition of the Hay literary festival and, each November, the MUCES festival of European cinema.

About 52,000 people live in the municipality (INE, 2025), and about 80,000 in its immediate area, which includes villages such as Zamarramala and Revenga. The city grew steadily through the 20th century, from 16,000 in 1920 to over 53,000 in 1981, but has changed little in size since. In 2019 about 11 per cent of residents were foreign nationals.

The economy rests on tourism, construction, metallurgy, furniture making and agriculture. Many visitors come on day trips from Madrid, filling the streets between the aqueduct and the Alcázar by day and leaving them quiet by evening. The high-speed line, opened on the Madrid–León route, puts the capital about half an hour away by train, and the AP-61 motorway has run since 2004.

Many residents live in districts such as San Lorenzo, San José, El Salvador and Nueva Segovia. Neighbourhood life is strong: several districts have their own Holy Week brotherhood and, in San Lorenzo's case, its own summer feast in August.

Segovia is best known for cochinillo asado, roast suckling pig, one of the most popular Castilian versions of the dish. The piglet is opened and cleaned, coated with pork fat and a few bay leaves and roasted, traditionally in a wood-fired oven and in an earthenware dish, until the skin forms a crisp crust. In the mid-20th century taverns in Segovia and Madrid competed to claim the best recipe, and the innkeeper of Cándido, beneath the aqueduct, became famous for serving it with songs.

Roast lamb, veal and beef, sausages and salads fill local menus, along with judiones, a bean stew known as judiones de La Granja, and verdel, smoked mackerel. Ponche segoviano and natillas are the typical desserts, and for San Frutos the city's pastry makers have created a sweet named after the saint.

Bars cluster in the old city: the Plaza Mayor alone has several, among them the Rubi, counted as the city's oldest tavern, and menus across the city offer the local roasts and bean stews.