At the confluence of the rivers and Clamores Eresma at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, Segovia is one of the Spanish cities that best preserve the spectacular legacy the Romans left in it.

The biggest tourist attraction in Segovia is the Roman aqueduct built in to move water from the Rio Hollin, though legend says something quite different. According to this a young water carrier, tired of dragging the jar over the steep and narrow streets of the city, agreed to a trade with the devil. The latter could avail of the soul of the girl if, before the cock crowed, the water came up to the door of his house. The Devil piecework, be built in less than 24 hours and did not get a stone. Read the rest of this entry »

O, boy, what an amazing door! The Larkin O Building, constructed in 1907 as one of multiple additions to the sprawling Larkin factory complex, contains an odd second-story door that appears more like one that would have opened out onto a ground-level sidewalk.

It’s not only an appearance. The door did once face onto a street – the Van Rensselaer Street viaduct, in fact. Until a couple decades ago, this section of Van Rensselaer Street from Roseville to Seneca streets was an elevated viaduct allowing the passage of trains underneath, along the tracks of the Erie Railroad that have since been removed. Read the rest of this entry »