To All the Walls I’ve Loved Before

I’ve seen a lot of beautiful architecture during my travels: castles, cathedrals, mosques, bridges, towers, museums. However, one of the most interesting kinds of architecture I’ve come across is the wall. In ancient and medieval times, walls were the best way to protect a city, but after the medieval era, walls were deemed useless because of inventions (such as the cannon) which could propel ammunition over the walls, so they were often torn down. A few examples still stand.

The wall surrounding the city center in Avila, Spain, is stunning. Begun in the 11th century, it protected Avila from the Moors. Although many cities at that time had similar walls, only Avila has preserved its walls. Therefore, today Avila is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can walk on top of the walls, climb its towers, or go in the churches which are built into the walls.

Several years ago, we went to the queen of walls, the Great Wall of China. It is magnificent, even though parts of it are quite dilapidated.  You can get a taxi from Beijing, climb around on the walls for a while, and get a taxi back. It’s a nice day trip. In one place, you can even climb the walls and take a slide back down! We just walked.

​The Chinese began construction on several walls in the 7th century BC which were later joined together. Most of the current wall was built between the 14th and 17th centuries. It’s purpose? Regulate trade, keep out neighbors, control immigration. It crosses northern China, and ends in the Bohai Sea. Yes, it just goes a few yards out into the sea and ends, which I find a little anti-climactic.

Vienna, Austria, used to have a wall surrounding what is now the city center. The defensive walls were built in the 13th century to protect Vienna from the Turks. As times changed, the walls became obsolete and the city grew, and Emperor Franz Joseph decided in the 19th century to tear down the wall and replace it with a wide, tree-lined boulevard called the Ring. He also decided to construct buildings along the Ring, creating a functional and beautiful city center.

Exhibit in the Vienna Museum showing Vienna when the wall was intact.

Votifskirche. Why does it have a George Clooney ad on the front? Well, why not?

Opera

City Hall, with Christmas Market

City Park

Because Vienna’s city center is surrounded by the Ring, it makes the city very accessible and easy to get around in. It’s a great use for the area occupied by a relic the city no longer needs.

Salzburg’s Hohensalzburg Castle still has its medieval wall. You get over the wall in a little funicular railroad, then you poke around the castle until you get hungry. At least, that’s the way I did it. It’s a beautifully preserved castle with lovely views. The castle was built in the 11th century by Catholic archbishops who were feuding with the monarchy. Boy, talk about separation of church and state--these guys were serious! We just separate church and state with some laws, but they separated them with walls.

Atop the walls

View of Salzburg

Courtyard inside the castle

Cannon so the archbishops could defend themselves from the monarchy

Here’s a classic--the Berlin Wall. I love Berlin because of its beautiful architecture, its weighty history, and the people’s resilience in spite of being jerked around by various governments. The Berlin Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989, is now only a reminder of those troubled times. Some sections remain, covered in street art, and some are preserved as memorials or as educational exhibits.

Checkpoint Charlie

Jerusalem’s Old City is surrounded by walls which the Ottomans built in the 16th century. Jerusalem had been surrounded by a wall since ancient times because everybody had a wall in ancient times. Later, the wall tried to hold off the Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Crusaders, and probably somebody else as well. Everybody wants a piece of Jerusalem.

Inside Jerusalem’s Old City, there is another wall surrounding the Temple Mount. Herod the Great built the wall and leveled the hilltop within the walls’ confines to build the temple in the first century BC. Today, Muslims have use of the area inside the wall, while Jews pray outside at the Western Wall. Non-Muslims may enter the Temple Mount area during certain times. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s what we’ve got.

Temple Mount. The wooden bridge is where non-Muslims may enter the Temple Mount.

Western Wall

al-Aqsa Mosque, in Temple Mount

Herod shows up again at Masada. He built Masada as a winter palace, high on top of a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea. It is more famously known as the place where, according to Josephus, a community of Jews committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans. Herod built his palace surrounded by walls because that’s the way he rolled. He did things big. The Jews were defeated when the Romans built a ramp which wheeled a battering ram up to their gate in the wall.

Ramp, partially destroyed, where Romans rolled a battering ram up to the gate

From atop Masada, you can still see the walls surrounding the old Roman army camps.

One thing I love about travel is that you get an opportunity to put together all those bits and pieces you picked up in school, church, books, movies, and the news. Walls were useful for separating people in ancient times, but now they are relics of the past. They are museum pieces, there to remind us that if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.