His next port of call is only a short walk away, and it's the Convent of Las Huelgas - once a very upper-crust nunnery indeed. You had to be a princess to get in, practically. 'Huelga' in modern Spanish means a strike, but not in Nathaniel's day, when it meant something more like 'rest'. Consequently he believes 'Las Huelgas' means something like '(place of) rest', because it was to this convent that not merely unmarried royals, but even widowed ones, eventually retired. (But Wikipedia says it means 'fallow lands'. Bit prosaic.)
Either way the place is absolutely stacked solid with royal tombs, and Nathaniel knows this, but he can't see most of them...because the nuns are still there, and the main part of the church is partitioned for their private use.
"The convent is said to contain handsome cloisters, courts, chapter-hall, and other state apartments,...The whole is surrounded by a complete circle of houses, occupied by its various dependants and pensioners. These are enclosed from without by a lofty wall...their appearance is that of a small town, surrounding a cathedral and palace."
So here is a selection of the sights our boy missed, (all courtesy of Wikimedia Commons):
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| The cloister and gardens...[Author: Rafaelji] |
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| Medieval textiles and tomb of Lady Blanche [Author: Lancastermerrin88] | | | |
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| Another cloister. (I could retire here. I really could.) Author: Jesusccastillo |
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