Avila
Ávila is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León in Spain. Located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, to the north of the Sistema Central, it lies on the right bank of the Adaja and, at an elevation of over 1,130 metres (3,710 ft) above sea level, is the highest provincial capital in Spain.
Ávila is sometimes called the "City of Stones and Saints" due to its well-preserved medieval architecture (especially its Romanesque walls) and it being the home of religious figures such as Doctors of the Church John and Teresa of Ávila. The town also claims to have among the highest number of Romanesque and Gothic churches per capita in Spain. For these reasons, in his book El alma castellana (transl. The Castilian Soul), writer José Martínez Ruiz described it as "perhaps the most 16th-century town in Spain". Filmmaker Orson Welles once named Ávila as the place in which he would most desire to live, calling it a "strange, tragic place"; various scenes of his 1965 film Chimes at Midnight were filmed in the town.
Ávila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. The site originally consisted solely of the walled city and four extra muros churches, though the number of churches included in the Site has since been increased.
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