a monumental historical-artistic set in the province of Badajoz, has been recognized as. His old town is a framework of cobbled alleys and luminous houses enchanted by which palaces, convents and attractive churches of the Extremaduran Baroque, testimonies of his long history.
1. Baroque churches
The title that now 500 years ago (in 1525) gave him the emperor Carlos V, has an unmistakable horizon silhouette by the slender baroque towers of their churches of San Bartolomé, San Miguel, Santa María de la Encarnación and Santa Catalina. They emerge on a sea of white facades and reddish roofs, sheltered behind the canvases of their walls.
Since Jerez de los Caballeros stands on mountain slopes, it is advisable to start visiting from the upper part, from San Bartolomé, patron of the city. It is, perhaps, the most striking church for the unique beauty of its affiligrated tower and the polychromy of its peculiar cover based on tile, glazed mud and plaster. Inside the altarpiece, the organ, the chapel of the commander, the stature of San Bartolomé with a chained devil and the baptismal battery of. Going down the street of La Oliva, you get to its home house, today historical interpretation center, and the Church of San Miguel (fifteenth century). No less impressive are his brick tower and glazed mud, and his covers of the epistle and forgiveness. Inside they highlight their altarpieces, the Renaissance choir and the frescoes of the dome of the Venetian school cruise.
Santa María de la Encarnación, next to the Alcazaba, is the oldest church in the city, as witnessed by a Visigothic inscription of the seventh century, although the current construction is from the 15th. It was mosque in the Muslim era. Inside, a penitent cupcake of the school of.
Extramuros is Santa Catalina, built on a medieval temple. It has a single home run plant in which the altarpiece and the organ stand out. On the way we can visit the Sacred Art Museum, which keeps notable sizes and singers.
2. Vestiges of the walls
The Shawn (city) Muslim was a relevant villa; Idrisi’s cartographer was equated in the twelfth century with and Badajoz. He maintained his prosperity after the Christian conquest, in 1230, when he became cowards of the Order of the Temple. His gentlemen took advantage of the Muslim Alcazaba, in which a mooring remains, to build his strength and the walls. The most famous of his towers is that of the tribute, also called Bloodyfor being here slaughtered the last temples that resisted the papal bull that ordered the dissolution of the order. It is said that at night their footsteps and those of their horses are heard in the Alcazaba. After its fall, the town of Santiago ruled the town.
From the Alcazaba and the surrounding gardens you enjoy a beautiful overview of the town and its fields. From the walls there are only two doors left: that of the town and that of, which guard a statue of Hernando de Soto, explorer of and the Mississippi, born, apparently, here.
3. Stroll between Palacios
For its winding alleys we will find historical buildings, usually built around interior courtyards, which look like their old noble shields such as the Palaces of Rianzuela, Guzmán Sotomayor, Silva and Figueroa, of the Marquises of San Fernando and Selva Alegre; the houses of the Sun and the Bachelor Martínez de; The hermitages of the Holy Martyrs and San Roque, or the Convents Madre de Dios and San Agustín. The latter, of the XVI, with a beautiful cloister, houses the Tourism Office. Extramuros are the hermitage of San Lázaro, of the Templar era, and the convent of Aguasantas, dedicated to the Patron Virgin of the city.
4. Medieval parties
His eight ancestral brotherhoods have achieved with their colorful processions that their Holy Week is declared of national interest. In July, for several days, the villa and its inhabitants are decorated in the medieval way towards parades, markets, troubadours, theater … that recall the time of the Templars and their sacrifice.
During the, in August, the devil’s exit takes place from the homonymous church, which chases the children with a broom, and at night the burning of the devil’s tail in which their effigy is incinerated while young people jump over the fires.
5. Food with special dessert
That of the vast pastures surrounding the town and its gastronomy; Not forgetting the mushrooms, the asparagus, the crumbs, the boiler or the snails, all watered with wines and Extremadura cavas. A curious place to eat is the one, located in the ancient hermitage of the Christ of Veracruz, of the seventeenth century, with its altarpiece and its original pulpit. Nor should we leave without trying, a traditional almond candy on a “angel bread.”
6. Charming surroundings
This area was inhabited since ancient times, as testified by the Dolmen de Toriñuelo, the Old Bridges and El Pontón. You can see all kinds of birds around the Ardila River and the Brovals and Valuengo swamps, and marvel at their clear starry skies. Who wants to sleep in an old 16th -century monastery, the, half an hour from Jerez de los Caballeros.
