Spain Guide
Extremadura
Cáceres
CÁCERES is in many ways remarkably like Trujillo. It features an almost perfectly preserved walled town, the Ciudad Monumental, packed with solares built on the proceeds of American exploration, while every available tower and spire is crowned by a clutch of storks' nests. As a provincial capital, however, Cáceres is much larger and livelier, especially when the students of the University of Extremadura are around. With its Roman, Moorish and conquistador sights, and great bars and restaurants, it's an absorbing and highly enjoyable city. It also provides a dramatic backdrop for an annual WOMAD festival, held over the second weekend in May and attracting 70,000 spectators.
Almost everything of interest is contained within – or a short walk from – the Old Town at the heart of Cáceres, also known as the Parte Vieja and the Ciudad Monumental; try to base yourself as close to it as possible. The walls are basically Moorish in construction, though parts date back to the Romans – notably the Arco del Cristo – and they have been added to, refortified and built against throughout the centuries. The most intact section, with several original adobe Moorish towers, runs in a clockwise direction, as you face the walls from the picturesque Plaza Mayor just outside.
Entering the Old Town from the Plaza Mayor, you pass through the low Arco de la Estrella. To your left stands one of the most imposing conquistador solares, the Casa de Toledo-Moctezuma with its domed tower. It was to this house that a follower of Cortés brought back one of the New World's more exotic prizes, a daughter of the Aztec emperor, as his bride. The building houses the provincial historical archives, and stages occasional exhibitions.
Look out for the Casa de los Golfines de Arriba, a conquistador mansion on c/Adarve Padre Rosalío, the alleyway that runs alongside the walls parallel to the Plaza Mayor. Franco had himself proclaimed Generalísmo and head of state here in 1936. Another solar, the Casa del Mono (House of the Monkey), is now a public library; the facade is adorned with grotesque gargoyles and a stone monkey is chained to the staircase in the courtyard.
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