t Amirate of
Toledo, but the Castilian kings grew stronger, till in 1085 they were
able to recapture Toledo. The singularly picturesque contours of the
city are due to the various races which fortified her. Iberians were
probably the first to strengthen their hill from outside attack,--the
Romans followed, building upon the foundations of the old walls, and
Christian and Moslem completed the work, until the little city was
compactly girdled by strong masonry, broken by some three to four score
fighting towers and but few gates of entrance. Alfonso the Wise was one
of the great Segovian rulers and builders. He strengthened her bastions,
added a good deal to the walls of her illustrious fortress, and in 1108
gave the city her first charter. A few years later Segovia was elevated
to a bishopric.

Long before the earliest cathedral church, the Alcazar was the most
conspicuous feature in the landscape, and it still holds the second
place. Erected on the steep rocks at the extreme eastern end of the
almond-shaped hill, it stands like a chieftain at the head of his
warriors, always ready for battle, and first to meet any onslaught.
Several Alfonsos, as well as Sanchos, labored upon it during the
perilous twelfth century. Here the kings took up their abode in the
happy days when Segovia was capital of the kingdom, and even in later
times it sheltered such illustrious travelers as the unfortunate Prince
Charles of England, and Gil Blas, when out of suits with fortune.

The first Cathedral was erected on the broad platform east of the
Alcazar, directly under the shadow of its protecting walls. The
ever-reappearing Count Raymond of Burgundy was commissioned by his
father-in-law, the King, to repopulate Segovia after the Moorish
devastations, and he rebuilt its walls, as he was doing for the
recaptured cities of Salamanca and Avila. The battlements were repaired,
and northerners from many provinces occupied the houses that had been
deserted.

To judge from the ruins as well as from well-preserved edifices,
Romanesque days must have been full of great architectural activity. One
is constantly reminded of Toledo in climbing up and down the narrow
streets, where one must often turn aside or find progress barred by
Romanesque and Gothic courtyards or smelly culs-de-sac. Everywhere are
Romanesque portals and arches, palaces and the apses and circular
chapels of the age, bulging beyond the sidewalks into the cobblestones
of the stree