This legend is a tragic love story that has a broken heart, the pain of love and the misfortune of love lost.
The Palace of Núñez Vela was the home of the beautiful Lucinda, the daughter of an Ávila noble. She was known for her piety and serene beauty. Despite the flattery of a certain number of suitors who tried to win her heart, she ignored her feelings. Indeed, to keep them at bay, she was always accompanied by a number of maids and governesses by express order of her parents.
However, as she walked around the city, she began to notice the presence of a good-looking young man who followed her at a distance. The balcony of her bedroom, which is still there today, was higher than the walls and had a wonderful view of the Amblés Valley. One day, as she stepped out onto the balcony, she found the mysterious young man there.
Her curiosity for the young nobleman turned into love and, finally, their passion made it possible for both of them to speak. After they had spoken, they were completely in love.
Just as they were getting to know each other, tragedy struck: the young man, who was a noble of great lineage called Enrique Blázquez Dávila, was accused of conspiracy and exiled. There were those who believed that the young maiden's father had had a hidden hand in events to take him away from his daughter. However, the night before he left, the lovers saw each other for the last time and swore eternal love to each other:
"Will thou always love me?" The young maiden asked.
"Until death takes me," shouted Enrique in a wash of emotion as he galloped away from the walls. For a long time, he could still see his beloved on the walls.
From that day on, Lucinda spent several hours a day on her balcony, scanning the horizon in case her beloved returned or anyone brought news of him. But she did not cope with his absence for long and fell sick and died shortly afterwards, possibly because of a broken heart.
Enrique regained his honour by taking part in a thousand battles and when he returned to Ávila, he went straight back to the Palace, where he was given the news of his beloved's death.
The fact that he had been unable to see her again before she died drove him out of his mind and he found his way into the church of the convent where she lay and tried to open her tomb. However, by way of supernatural magic, his hands were soldered to the top of the sarcophagus. After a few agonising minutes during which he tried to remove them from the cold granite, he managed to do so and fled in fright. This prevented him from desecrating the tomb and seeing a horrible image that would have remained with him all his life.
After a night of torture, the knight went back to the convent and asked to join the order as a monk. And there he spent the rest of his life, living next to his deceased beloved.
There are two galleries that look onto the walls and the most famous is that of the Palace of Núñez Vela, which is where the young maiden Lucinda experienced both love and pain. It is said that she was buried in the Convent of San Francisco, which is located in the north of the city. However, so far, no one has seen the knight who supposedly watches over his lady's eternal sleep.
Gallery of the Palace of Núñez Vela