Salamanca, the Salmantica of the Romans, succeeded to Palencia as the seat of a university, and during the epoch of the Renaissance was described as the “mother of virtues, sciences, and arts,” and the “Rome of the Castiles.” It still deserves the latter epithet, because of its magnificent bridge built by Trajan, and the beautiful edifices dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its intellectual superiority, however, is a thing of the past.
Arevalo, and the famous town of Medina del Campo, to the north-east of Salamanca, carry on a considerable trade with corn. Ávila occupies an isolated hillock on the banks of the Adaja, to the north of the Sierra de Gredos. Ávila still preserves its turreted walls of the fifteenth century, and its fortress-like cathedral is a marvel of architecture. There are also curious sculptures of animals, which are ascribed {390} to the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. Similar works of rude art in the vicinity are known as the “bulls of Guisando,” from a village in the Sierra de Gredos.
Fig. 145.—TOLEDO.
Segovia the “circumspect” is situated on an affluent of the Duero, like Ávila, and in the immediate vicinity of the Sierra de Guadarrama. Its turreted walls rise on a scarped rock, supposed to resemble a ship. On the poop of this fancied ship, high above the confluence of the Clamores and Eresma, rise the ruins of the Moorish Alcázar, whilst the cathedral, in the centre of the city, is supposed to represent the mainmast. A beautiful aqueduct supplies Segovia with the clear waters of the Guadarrama. It is the finest Roman work of this class in Iberia, and far superior to the royal palace of San Ildefonso or of La Granja, in the neighbourhood of the city.
PEASANTS OF TOLEDO, CASTILE.
ROMAN BRIDGE AT ALCANTARA.