All of the students in my program and two of the professors left Segovia at 10:20 in the morning and headed to the pueblo of Santa María la Real de Nieva to see Our Lady of Soterraña Monastery's cloister. A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walkways or open galleries. Many of the historic religious buildings here have cloisters because they allow a building to have a garden that is protected from the diverse weather experienced in this area.
The architecture of this historical site is considered Gothic. Gothic architecture is characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vault, and the flying buttress. Yes, the flying buttress apparently has something to do with architecture.. (Although, I found that on Wikipedia, so maybe not.) Inside the cloister, there were beautiful pillars with extremely detailed pictures carved into them. These pictures mostly represented biblical stories. On one of the walls, there was a plaque with symbols on it. Because only the noble and clergymen in medieval times could read and write, the sculptors used symbols to "sign" their work. On many of the pillars, you could still see these "signatures." This monastery was constructed from 1393-1399 so that was mind-blowing. I saw signatures that were over 400 years old.
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| The Monastery |
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| The sculptors' "signatures" |
Our next stop was the castle of Coca. This was my favorite site of the day. The Castle of Coca has Mudéjar architecture. Mudéjar means a Muslim artist or architect worked for a Christian employer. Spain is the only country in Europe where the Mudejar style can be found, due to the strong Islamic influence that came from Africa and took over many parts of the country. Common characteristics of Mudéjar or any type of Islamic art/architecture include: geometric patterns, murals of vegetation, plain floors, and beautiful ceilings. All of these characteristics stem from their religious beliefs.
As a class, we were able to tour many different rooms in the castle. We walked up and down the winding, narrow, steep staircases to get from the various rooms. My favorites were the dungeon and the room of secrets. The dungeon was actually multiple stories tall, with a hole in the middle of every level except the bottom. (All I could think about was the Moon Door in Game of Thrones.) The knights would take prisoners and throw them down the hole into the next room, causing the prisoner to break bones and receive other injuries, but not die. They would throw the prisoner down each level until he got to the bottom, where he would sit with his injuries amongst corpse and others waiting to die, either from starvation or infection. The holes were kind of small, so naturally we asked the tour guide what would happen if the prisoner was too big to fit. She said they would cut your sides until you fit through. The medieval times were ruthless.
On a less morbid note, the room of secrets was built in such a way that if you stood directly across from someone and both faced the wall, you could hear the other person's whisper. This is where the knights went to exchange secrets.
An empty moat served as the first line of defense for the castle. Contrary to what is depicted in movies, moats were supposed to be empty so that the enemy would surely die if they fell in. The imagery of water being in the moat came from the castles in Northern Europe, in areas that receive a lot of rain. To their disadvantage, the rain water would collect in the moats, filling them, and breaking the enemy's fall.
Surrounding the Castle of Coca is the most largest pine forest in Europe. Because of this, the castle now serves as living quarters for college students who are able to complete internships working in the forest.
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| My class in front of the Castle of Coca |
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| The dangerous staircase |
After the Castle of Coca, we briefly stopped at the Castle of Cuellar, which has completely Cheistian architecture. It was interesting to get to see the differences, although I definitely prefer Mudèjar. In the past, the structure has served as a castle (defense system), palace (housing for royalty), and as a prison for captives during the war for independence against France. Now, it is a high school.
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