Segovia is a rare place in Spain with a dry, inland Mediterranean climate, and it has a lot of water. The Alcázar Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world. Two rivers, the Eresma and the Clamores, flow on either side of it. And the Aqueduct: The Roman Aqueduct, the symbol of the city, towering over 2000 years, which draws water to the city from the River Frio. Several rivers flow into the city, fed by the Guadarrama Mountains. Segovia is and always has been a city rich in water. The dry climate brings clear skies and lots of greenery. The Spanish call Segovia 'the green belt'. Segovia has history and nature.

A city with many diverse facets.

It is a popular tourist destination as a day trip from Madrid, about 30 minutes by express train from the capital. On weekends, it attracts tourists from all over Spain.

The climate is dry, inland Mediterranean. Summers are cool and winters are cold and dry.

The city was the setting for the Spanish historical drama Isabel. Segovia became the center of Spain on 13 December 1473 when the Trastamaran queen of Spain, Isabel, was crowned in Segovia.

Although Segovia has many Catholic cultural monuments, the city's symbol is the Roman Aqueduct: The Aqueduct, one of the miracles of our time, which has survived 2000 years and still looks great today. It is over 16 km long and 30 meters high. Made entirely of piled up granite blocks, it is one of the great Roman monuments that attracts tourists from all over the world. Segovia has a lot more to offer than just its historical heritage.

Segovia through the centuries

Segovia has a very ancient history, with prehistoric Cro-Magnon habitation sites found in the valley near the confluence of the rivers Clamores and Eresma, where the Alcázar Castle was built. Celtic remains were also as well as remains from the Bronze Age, and the Alcázar Castle was built on the site of a Celtic castle.

At the end of the 2nd century BC, the Romans reached the city, which developed into a commercial center in the west. It was later formally incorporated into the Roman Empire and the world-famous Aqueduct, the most importante roman monument, was built.

The most popular current theory on the origin of the name Segovia is a Celtic-Latin coinage, i.e., Sego: victory, via: road, path of victory.

With few Muslim archaeological remains remaining and the richest Romanesque ensemble in Europe, the city was abandoned after the Muslim invasion and, from the end of the 11th century, the city was occupied by Raymond of Burgundy, son-in-law of the king Alfonso VI, and the first bishop of his reconstructed diocese, the thesis of historians, led by another Frenchman, Peter of Agen, is supported by historians who claim that it was resettled by Christians from the northern part of the peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees.

The late Middle Ages were a glorious period for Segovia.

Segovia colonized vast territories and its communities extended to both sides of the Sierra Mountains, where important Jewish synagogues were located, but were eventually forced to confine themselves to Jewish settlements. The land laid the foundations for a strong textile industry that would gain great renown in later centuries, bears the imprint of Gothic art, and left behind prominent monasteries and convents. It was the royal court of the Trastamara family.

On 13 December 1474, Isabella was proclaimed Catholic Queen of Castile. It was a golden period for Segovia, where the court stayed for certain periods of time.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, aristocratic families and proud weavers competed to build city palaces, with Renaissance-style courtyards and gardens decorated with opulent Baroque heraldry.

However, the defeat of the Castilian cities in the War of the Communities, in which the Segovian militia, led by Juan Bravo, played an important role and the southward shift in the centre of gravity of the Spanish economy following the discovery of the Americas meant that the Bourbons were forced to abandon both the royal palace sites they had built in the surrounding area -La Granja and Rio Frio- and the city's Artillery academies could not halt the decline.

The subsequent impoverishment, which could not be contained in the 19th century when Segovia suffered from the occupation of French and Carlist forces, was a major cause.

The situation in Segovia did not improve much in the 20th century: The economic crisis of 1917, the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic, and the disruption of the political and economic situation at national level caused by the Spanish Civil War prevented Segovia's economy from developing sufficiently. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that tourism and the hotel industry began to grow, which led to Segovia's significant development, and in 1985 the 'Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct' was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.