We'd arrived the late afternoon before in Segovia, a city about 50 miles from Spain's capital of Madrid, so we could see its thrilling Roman aqueduct, a grand cathedral and a historic castle called the Alcazar. Since the city is more than 3,000 feet above sea level and just northwest of a mountain range, the city is exposed to cool northern breezes and people from Madrid come to get away from the summer heat. Hot weather would have been great but rain was still dogging us unfortunately.
Don't the walls look very much like a castle from Disneyland?! We took the panoramic drive around the city en route to the 13th century Vera Cruz Church.
In the Chapel of the Lignum Crucis, just steps from the entrance, the relic of the True Cross was venerated in a vaulted niche for centuries.
Upstairs and inside the Edicule, the very simple altar table had Mudejar decorations. The presumed knights used this space to guard over the area before the crusades.
The church was great in its simplicity and steeped in history.
Don't the walls look very much like a castle from Disneyland?! We took the panoramic drive around the city en route to the 13th century Vera Cruz Church.
In the distance was Segovia's Cathedral, built in Renaissance times from 1525-1768 and Spain's last Gothic building.
We had some marvelous views of the Alcazar, the fortified palace that was one of the favorite residences of the monarchs of Castile during the Middle Ages. As Rick Steves noted, the Alcazar grew through the ages and its function changed several times from being a palace, to a prison for 200 years, and then a Royal Artillery School. Since a fire in 1862, it has basically been a museum.
The church on the left was San Esteban or St. Stephen; on the right was the Cathedral.
The 12-sided - representing the apostles - Romanesque Vera Cruz Church was consecrated in 1208 when its owner, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, was seated here. It was built by the Knights Templar, to house a fragment of the True Cross - thus its name - now located in a nearby village church. Vera Cruz was modeled after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Its round shape was different from other Romanesque churches of the time. The round type of architecture became common among the buildings built by the knights of the various orders, founded by the Crusaders in Palestine. The Knights of the Sovereign Order and Hospaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta - what a mouthful - frequently celebrate their religious ceremonies and functions here during the year. The Order of Malta was the Catholic religious institution with a noble tradition whose origins dated back to 1104. Its members were knights with religious votes, monks and soldiers at the same time who performed hospital duties at night and fought against the Muslims in Palestine.
The interior had a large pillar called an Edicule which was open through four arches and had two levels. Its four accesses under pointed archways coincided with cardinal points and were covered with a cross-shaped vault.
The lower level may have housed prisoners.
Remains of old murals:
In the right side apse were stone Romanic images of Our Lady of Peace from 1692.
The beautiful 1516 Altarpiece of the Resurrection contained scenes from the life of Christ.
The church was great in its simplicity and steeped in history.
Across the street was the Church of San Marcos and the San Marcos Customs House as each town had a courthouse at its entrance.
Our first view of the city's fabulous aqueduct would have to be enough until we explored more of the city the following day. It was amazing how they’d held up over the millennia when no mortar was used!
We'd hoped to see the supposedly fascinating 12th and 13th century frescoes filled with Gothic symbolism in the nearby Church of Santos Justo y Pastor but it was closed.
We had to content ourselves with these photos instead.
Rather than see any more of Segovia then, we drove to the Valley of the Fallen because it would be closed on our way to Madrid. The Valley, located high in the Guadarrama Mountains, was an immense and powerful underground monument honoring the victims of Spain's Civil War which lasted from 1936-1939.
Once again I was definitely glad Steven had chosen to drive through the mountains as it was so foggy at the summit.
The 500-foot tall granite cross marked the entrance to the Valley of the Fallen. To reach the cross and the underground monument, we needed to drive through a sprawling park, passing tiny chapels where pilgrims stop to pray at the stations of the cross.
In 1940, prison workers dug 220,000 tons of granite out of the hill beneath the cross to form an underground basilica and then used the stones to erect the cross. The stairs that led to the monument were grouped in sets of ten, meant to symbolize the Ten Commandments, including 'Thou shalt not kill.' That was more than a tad ironic!
The cross was held up by granite giants representing the apostles and virtues.
The emotional pieta draped over the basilica's entrance was huge and was sculpted by the same artist who created the dramatic figures of the four Evangelists at the base of the cross above.
Some background on the Spanish Civil War thanks to Steves: Thirty-three months of warfare killed approximately 500,000 Spaniards during the Civil War. Unlike the American Civil War, which divided the US north and south, the war in Spain was between classes and ideologies, splitting every town and village as well as many families. The war began as a military coup to overthrow the democratically elected Republic, a government that the army and other government forces considered too liberal and disorganized. The rebel forces, known as the Nationalists, consisted of the army, monarchy, the Catholic Church, big business and rural estates, with assistance from Germany, Italy, and Portugal. Those who tried to preserve the liberal government were the Republicans, also called Loyalists, and consisted of the government, urban areas, small businesses, labor unions, with aid from the International Brigades of communists, socialists and labor organizers as well as minimal help from the US.
In the summer of 1936, the army rebelled and took control of its own garrisons, rejecting the Republic and pledging allegiance to Generalissimo Francisco Franco who lived from 1892-1975. These Nationalists launched a three-year military offensive to take Spain region by region, town by town. The government or Republicans put together an army of volunteers, local militias and international fighters. The war pitted conservative Catholic priests against socialist factory workers, rich businessmen against radical students, etc. People suffered so much that many elderly people we met were very short, because they grew up during the hungry and difficult civil war years. By 1938, only Barcelona and Madrid still held out against Franco's government. When Madrid fell on April 1, 1939, the war ended and thus began 36 years of iron-fisted rule by Franco.
The moment we entered the basilica, we were struck by the stony chill and a solemn silence. At 300 yards long, it was built to be longer than St. Peter's in Rome but the Vatican only blessed 262 of them. After walking through two long vestibules, we reached the iron gates of the actual basilica. The line of torch-like lamps added to the ambiance.
It was particularly unnerving seeing statues of angels with swords, as normally angels are associated with peace.
The sides of the monument were lined with copies of 16th century Belgian tapestries of the Apocalypse. The colors were so vibrant and the tapestries were still in such great condition. How long did each one take and how many women worked on them, I wondered. Don't forget to click on any photo to make it bigger if you want to see it in greater detail.
The ceiling in the Chapel of the Sepulcher showed the descent of Christ depicted in mosaics. Next to the figure of Jesus Christ carved out of alabaster were the polychrome and wood statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist.
I attended Mass in one of the small side chapels.
In the center of the basilica was the high altar with Franco's flower-strewn grave taking center stage. There was very strict security around Franco’s grave. I read in The Telegraph that efforts have been underway for years to move Franco’s tomb, exhume victims of the war and create a museum to offer a more balanced view of the conflict, but these moves have so far been unsuccessful. I again had to take these photos surreptitiously as none were allowed so they were the best I could manage under difficult conditions.
In front of the altar was the grave of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spanish fascism, who was killed by Republicans during the civil war. As you can see, his grave had one lone bouquet compared to the many on Franco's grave just feet away.
Between the graves was a statue of a crucified Christ tied to a timber Franco is said to have felled.
Interred behind the altar and in side chapels were the remains of about 34,000 people, both Franco's Nationalists and the anti-Franco Republicans who lost their lives in the war. All the urns were hidden behind doors marked only with 'RIP, 1936-1939, died for God and country.'
It was shocking seeing these rocks behind the monument knowing that so many prisoners had been forced by Franco to spend years to remove others just like these to build the sorrowful Valley of the Fallen.
The view, from the edge of the steps leading to the basilica, toward its park-like setting looked so serene and peaceful unlike the somber crypts containing so many departed souls.
As we drove toward the exit, we took our final look back at the Valley of the Fallen with the immense cross that was visible for people flying into Madrid or driving from Segovia. It was staggering to learn that 250,000 people a year head for the monument, quite a few of whom are there to pay tribute to the former dictator. While the location was spectacular, it was one of the most sinister places we have ever visited.
Next post: San Ildefonso Palace aka the Little Versailles!
Posted on January 2nd, 2019, from our home in suburban Denver.
Even though the weather didn't cooperate as we'd have liked, we had a great time exploring Segovia's very atmospheric Vera Cruz Church owned by the Order of Malta, before getting a taste of the city's ancient aqueducts. It was too wet to see more of the city then, so we drove through the mountains north of Madrid to the very impressive Valley of the Fallen. It was a somber experience viewing the rocky outcrop and memorial dedicated to the brave souls who perished during Spain's Civil War. Sadly, it is still a major point of contention between the pro- and anti-Franco forces. Annie
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