Segovia

The Roman Aqueduct in Segovia Was Built Without a Single Drop of Mortar

The 728-metre, 167-arch granite aqueduct standing in the centre of Segovia has been there since the 1st or 2nd century CE. Roman engineers fitted the stones against each other using nothing but precision and gravity, and the structure still stands today because that method, done properly, is more durable than mortar. It was used continuously to carry water from the Sierra de Guadarrama until 1973. No entry fee. It stands in the middle of the city as a piece of infrastructure that outlasted every political system that came after the Romans by about 1,800 years.

Segovia is 90 kilometres north of Madrid and about 28 minutes by high-speed Avant train from Chamartin station. It has three things that most Castilian cities cannot offer simultaneously: that aqueduct, a castle so visually extreme it allegedly inspired the design of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle, and a restaurant tradition for roast suckling pig specific enough to constitute a regional obsession.

The Roman Aqueduct

The highest point of the two-tiered arches reaches 28.5 metres at Plaza del Azoguejo, where the aqueduct enters the city. Walk the road alongside it south from the plaza for the full perspective; the scale registers differently on foot than it does from the square looking up. Photographs are best in early morning before tour groups arrive, or from the walls of the old city looking back down.

The Alcazar

The Alcazar sits on a rocky promontory at the western end of the old city where two rivers converge below. There has been a fortification here since the Moorish period (10th century); the present structure was built and modified through the 12th to 16th centuries. The ship-prow silhouette from outside is extraordinary, and the Disney comparison is genuinely close – the castle’s pointed towers and ridge-top position look exactly like the kind of thing animators work from. The interior was substantially restored after a fire in 1862. Climb the Juan II tower for views of the surrounding meseta and, on clear days, the Guadarrama mountains. Entry around 6 to 8 euros.

The Cathedral

Segovia Cathedral is the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain, finished in 1577, and called “La Dama de las Catedrales” for its elaborate exterior. The interior is spacious and calm in the way that late Gothic Spanish cathedrals tend to be. The attached museum has a good Flemish tapestry collection that is worth the extra minutes.

Cochinillo Asado

Segovia’s signature dish is suckling pig (cochinillo, typically 21 days old or younger) roasted in a wood-fired oven until the skin is crackling and the meat falls apart. The traditional restaurant performance: the chef demonstrates the tenderness of the meat by cutting it with the edge of a ceramic plate rather than a knife, then throwing the plate to the floor. The broken plate is given to the guest. This is not tourist theatre; it is a genuine quality demonstration, and any restaurant in Segovia that serves cochinillo should be able to do it.

Meson de Candido near the aqueduct at Plaza Azoguejo has served cochinillo since 1900 and has a formidable reputation, though it is now very much a tourist institution. The food is still good. Restaurante Jose Maria on Calle Cronista Lecea, slightly further from the main drag, is considered by many local residents to be equal or better quality at similar prices.

The correct accompaniment is Ribera del Duero red wine. Segovia is at the northern edge of that wine region; wine shops on Calle Juan Bravo stock local producers not widely seen outside Castile.

Getting There and Staying

Renfe Avant from Madrid Chamartin takes 28 minutes to Segovia AV; the high-speed station is outside the city but a bus runs to the old centre. Regular trains via the old route take about two hours. Buses from Estacion Sur take about 90 minutes and arrive closer to the centre.

Segovia works well as a day trip from Madrid. Staying overnight gives you the cathedral and aqueduct at sunset and sunrise without day-trip crowds – those empty morning hours are when the aqueduct is most worth being near.