Segovia

Segovia (/sɪˈɡoʊviə/ sig-OH-vee-ə, US also /seɪˈ-/ say-GOH-, Spanish: [seˈɣoβja] ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is located in the Inner Plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, near the northern slopes of the Sistema Central mountain range. Housing is nestled on a bend of the Eresma river.
The city is famous for its historic buildings including three main landmarks: its midtown Roman aqueduct, its cathedral (one of the last ones to be built in Europe following a Gothic style), and the Alcázar of Segovia (a fortress). The city center was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
The name of Segovia is of Celtiberian origin. Although historians have linked its old name to Segobriga, the discovery of the original Roman city of Segobriga near Saelices discarded this possibility. The name of "Segovia" is mentioned by Livy in the context of the Sertorian War.
Under the Romans and Moors, the city was called Sego([u])via (Σεγουβία, Ptolomeo ii. 6. § 56) and Šiqūbiyyah (شقوبية) respectively.
Segovia is located near the Eresma rivercourse (a second-order tributary of the Douro), close to the northwestern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains, a subrange of the Sistema Central.
The main route of the Camino de Santiago de Madrid passes through the city.
Segovia has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa in the Köppen climate classification) bordering on a cold semi-arid climate (BSk), resulting from the high altitude and the distance from the coast. The average annual temperature is 12.42 °C (54.4 °F), with an average low in January of 0.3 °C (32.5 °F) and an average high in July of 29.7 °C (85.5 °F). The annual precipitation range from 400 to 500 mm per year in the lower plains, and can reach above 1000 mm in the nearby mountainous area of Sierra de Guadarrama, as rainfall and snowfall is more frequent up the mountains. Decent showers coming from summer thunderstorms help the mountainous area of the province to be rainier than average than most of the central Spanish plateau, which gives the area lush vegetation. All of this make the province a damp corner in the context of the region. The predominant forms of vegetation in the mountainous areas include pine, evergreen, oak, beech and juniper.
Aside from the main city, there are a number of other villages within the municipality of Segovia.
The first recorded mention of a settlement in what is today Segovia was a Celtic possession. Control later passed into the hands of the Romans. The city is a possible site of the battle in 75 BC where Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius was victorious over Quintus Sertorius and Hirtuleius. Hirtuleius died in the fighting.
During the Roman period the settlement belonged to one of numerous contemporary Latin convents. It was traditionally defended that the place was uninhabited at the height of the 11th century. The circumstances behind the Christian settlement of the northern Meseta beyond the Douro (vis-à-vis the pre-existing population) in the middle ages is however a moot point in historiography. Short of the existence of any real urban layout in the place, possible pre-existing Berber or Mozarab settlements in the area are suggested.
After the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI of León and Castile, Segovia was resettled with Christians from the north of the Iberian peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees, providing it with a significant sphere of influence whose boundaries crossed the Sierra de Guadarrama and the Tagus.
Segovia's position on trading routes made it an important centre of trade in wool and textiles. The end of the Middle Ages saw something of a golden age for Segovia, with a growing Jewish population and the creation of a foundation for a powerful cloth industry. Several splendid works of Gothic architecture were also completed during this period. Notably, Isabella I was proclaimed queen of Castile in the church of San Miguel de Segovia on December 13, 1474. Segovienne was a local flannel cloth used for upholstery in the 14th to 17th centuries. It was a twilled weave structure with a hairy surface produced by using Spanish wool.
Like most Castilian textile centres, Segovia joined the Revolt of the Comuneros under the command of Juan Bravo. Despite the defeat of the Communities, the city's resultant economic boom continued into the sixteenth century, its population rising to 27,000 in 1594. Then, as well as almost all the cities of Castile, Segovia entered a period of decline. Only a century later in 1694, the population had been reduced to only 8,000 inhabitants. In the early eighteenth century, Segovia attempted to revitalize its textile industry, with little success. In the second half of the century, Charles III made another attempt to revive the region's commerce; it took the form of the Royal Segovian Wool Manufacturing Company (1763). However, the lack of competitiveness of production caused the crown withdraw its sponsorship in 1779. In 1764, the Royal School of Artillery, the first military academy in Spain, was opened. This academy remains present in the city today. In 1808, Segovia was sacked by French troops during the War of Independence. During the First Carlist War, troops under the command of Don Carlos, Count of Molina unsuccessfully attacked the city. During the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, Segovia experienced a demographic recovery that was the result of relative economic stability.
The population growth experienced during the nineteenth century accelerated steadily beginning around 1920: 16,013 inhabitants recorded that year, 33,360 in 1960, and 53,237 in 1981. Since the 1980s growth has slowed markedly: 55,586 in 2004 and 56,047 in 2007.
As of 1 January 2019, there were 11% of inhabitants who were foreigners – 4.478% coming from other countries in Europe, 2.37% being Africans, 3.7% being from the Americas, and 0.435% being Asians.
In 1985 the old city of Segovia and its Aqueduct were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The old city contains a multitude of historic buildings both civil and religious, including a large number of buildings of Jewish origin, notably within the old Jewish Quarter. One of the most historically important Jewish sites is the Jewish cemetery, El Pinarillo. Among the most important monuments in the city are:
The city maintains an important collection of Romanesque churches of both stone and brick, which include the churches of San Esteban, San Millán, San Martín, la Santísima Trinidad, San Andrés, San Clemente, Santos Justo y Pastor, Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (Order of Malta), and San Salvador.
The old main synagogue is a former synagogue, converted into a convent after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
The city of Segovia preserved also several monasteries and convents with active religious life:
Urban sculpture in Segovia feature works depicting illustrious figures linked to the city, but there are also several works of a religious nature. One of the most iconic sculptures of the Loba Capitolina sits in front of the aqueduct. A copy of the Capitoline wolf is preserved in the Capitoline Museum and was a gift that Rome gave to the city in 1974 during the events of the bimillennial anniversary of the aqueduct.
Until a few decades ago, a monument dedicated to the artist Daniel Zuloaga, which was installed in 1924, could be seen in the Plaza de la Merced, but it was relocated to the Plaza de Colmenares. Currently located in the center of the Plaza de la Merced, looking towards the church of San Andrés is a bust of the poet Rubén Darío, sculptor Santiago de Santiago, which was donated by the Nicaragua government to the city in 1973. Letters related to the bust are also found in the Promenade Lounge, the famous poet José Rodas was first installed in 1927 in the plaza of the gardens, and moved to its present site in 1960 by the Segovian sculptor Aniceto Marinas. There is also a tribute to Antonio Machado; the poet Segovia also took refuge here from 1919 to 1932, a sculpture honoring him is located in the garden of his home museum, and was done by Emiliano Barral.
Religious figures such as Domingo de Soto, Pius XII, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Saint John of the Cross have their own urban sculptures, including the first work of Ortega and several from José María García Moro, a prosperous Segovia sculptor who also created the Monument to the Youth located on the Plaza del Conde de Cheste. A few peasants have been recognized on the streets or town squares, as is the case for Aniceto Marinas, who dedicated a monument in 1943 to his friend and partner Mariano Benlliure.
In the field of arms is the monument to Daoíz and Velarde, Aniceto Marina's work. By the same artist is the sculpture dedicated to the list of people associated with the comunero Juan Bravo, made in 1921 and located in the heart of the city at the Square of the Sirens, the name given to two statues that top the stairs representing the mythological beings, which were made by Francisco Bellver in 1852. Other sculptures in the city include one devoted to physician Andrés Laguna made by the Segovian Florentino Trapero and located at Plaza de los Huertos, the bust of Lope de la Calle Martín, president of the provincial council, that was made by Emiliano Barral and can be seen in the square of San Facundo, or the monument "El Favorito" by Toribio García de Andrés in the early 20th century.
In addition to this series of monuments and sculptures some other religious images worth mentioning can be found in the quieter corners of the city. The most significant of these is the Virgin of the Aqueduct, located in the central niche of the monument at the Plaza del Azoguejo since the 16th century; it memorializes Colmenares. A series of virgins can also be found at the Fuencisla on Velarde Street, the los Remedios in front of San Juan Gate, the Socorro at the San Andrés Gate and the del Carmen on the street of its own name, among others.
Segovia also has a work by Luis Sanguino, who lives in the city. It is "El Mesonero Mayor de Castilla" ("The Elder Hotelkeeper of Castile"), at the Plaza del Santo Espíritu.
The economy of Segovia revolves around metallurgy, agriculture, furniture, construction and tourism. The town itself plays host to thousands of day trippers from Madrid each year due to its popular attractions.
Segovia is served by the Autopista AP-61 which opened in 2004. Segovia-Guiomar railway station provides a rail connection to Madrid Chamartín and Valladolid-Campo Grande via the AVE network's Madrid–León high-speed rail line. Direct train travel from Madrid stations to Segovia is approximately 30 minutes.
The city of Segovia is home to a large number of primary schools and secondary schools, the oldest of which (IES Andrés Laguna, founded in 1841) having been officially declared "of cultural interest." A high proportion of the student population attends state primary and secondary schools, while private schooling in Segovia is mostly religious in nature.
Segovia's premier higher education institution is IE University, a business-oriented undergraduate university, building upon Instituto Empresa's successful MBA program at Madrid-based IE Business School. Also present is the Segovia campus of the University of Valladolid, offering studies for careers in computer engineering, law, journalism, advertising and education.
MUCES (Muestra de Cine Europeo Ciudad de Segovia) is the Spanish acronym to The City of Segovia Festival of European Cinema, an annual film festival which takes place in the city since 2006, usually in November. It gives the wider public a chance to get to know quality European cinema and, above all, it offers the general public an opportunity to see European films which have not yet been commercially screened in Spain, but have been very successful with critics and audiences in their own countries. "My Cat Lives in Segovia" is one of the films presented to the audience.
The Holy Week is one of the most important cultural and religious events in all of Segovia, it is officially considered as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest. During the week, 10 fraternities march through the streets of Segovia:
There are many due to the longevity of the city, among the main ones are:
There are also other different legends in the incorporated neighborhoods.
Segovia is twinned with:
Segovia is the Antipode of Masterton, New Zealand.