Roman aqueduct, fairy-tale castle, and the original suckling pig — an hour from Madrid
Segovia contains three wildly different architectural icons within a single hilltop: a two-tiered Roman aqueduct still standing intact after 2,000 years without mortar; the Alcázar, a ship-bow-shaped castle that inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty; and a 16th-century Gothic cathedral. The city is also the gastronomic capital of cochinillo asado — suckling pig roasted until the skin shatters with the edge of a plate.
Segovia was an important Roman city (the aqueduct was built around 50 CE to carry water 16km from the Fría river) and remained significant through Visigoth and then Moorish rule before Christian reconquest in the 11th century. Isabella I was proclaimed Queen of Castile in the Alcázar's plaza in 1474, making Segovia the birthplace of the united Spanish monarchy. Philip II chose the Alcázar as his preferred residence before moving to the newly built El Escorial 50km away. The city went into genteel decline after the court left — which is largely why so much survived intact.