Los Cuatro Postes, Ávila

The humilladero de Los Cuatro Postes is a religious monument located in the city of Ávila. It is formed by four Doric columns of five meters high on whose capitals sit as many architraves with the arms of the city; in the center of the square formed by the columns, on a pedestal, stands a granite cross.

According to tradition, in 1157 the people of Avila organised a pilgrimage to the hermitage of San Leonardo, near Narrillos, in supplication for the disappearance of the plague that was ravaging the region. Taking advantage of the absence of most of the population, the Muslims attacked the city, taking everything of value that was in it. In order to pursue them, the councillors Nuño Rabia and Gómez Acedo organised a party, from which some of its members separated to return to the safety of the town. When, after defeating the Muslims, they returned to Ávila, they found that those who had separated from the group had closed the walls, and demanded part of the booty to accept the new arrivals. When King Sancho III of Castile heard of this, he went to Avila, expelled those inside and condemned them to live outside the walls, without titles of nobility or privileges; some of these expatriated and went to Ciudad Rodrigo, which King Fernando II of León was repopulating after its reconquest. The council of Ávila decided that the pilgrimage to San Leonardo should be repeated annually, and for the rest of the authorities, the humilladero de los Cuatro Postes was built on the route.

The current monument dates back to 1566, when the corregidor Rodrigo Dávila contracted the master stonemason Francisco de Arellano to build the "humilladero de la puente del Adaja", which included a sculpture of San Sebastián and a small roof. The cross was replaced in 1995, after it was vandalised in an act of vandalism.

According to tradition it was here where, as children, Teresa of Jesus and her brother Rodrigo were arrested by their uncle when they were planning to travel to the lands of the infidels to die martyred and where the saint, taking off her sandals, pronounced the famous phrase "From Avila, not even dust".