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The town is set amidst a landscape of scattered granite monoliths and diverse dehesas(from north to south Tabales, Barrera, Los Llanos and Valdegalindo),
the typical open woods of Holm Oak with grazing livestock. The local
streams and ponds are home to many birds and are also liberally stocked
with tenches, which play a starring role in the local cuisine.
The
town is probably remote in origin, to judge from the many prehistoric
remains found in the nearby spot of Villas Viejas. Remains of Roman
dwellings have also been found,. Brozas has sometimes taken front stage
in the history of Spain, as head town of the Encomienda Mayor(territorial trusteeship) of the military Order of Alcántara and it
prides itself on having spawned such great figures as the humanist
scholar El Brocense and Nicolás de Ovando, Columbuss successor as governor of the Isle La Española.
The
central part of the city has splendid examples of the local
architectural style, with notable ancestral homes such as the Palacio
de los Condes de Canilleros, the Palacio de la Torre delFresno
and the Mansión de los Bravos, known as the Casa de los Condes de la
Encina. Another important sight to see is its sixteenth-century Plaza
Mayor.
Among
the religious buildings the most important is the Iglesia de Santa
María Mayor de la Asunción, listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest. It
is late Gothic in style with a Plateresque main front. Inside there are
several tombs with escutcheons of grandees and two Visigoth capitals
now serving as fonts. The Iglesia de los Mártires is a
fifteenth-century parish church built over the old Ermita de San Sebastián.
Another
religious building worth seeing outside the town centre is the Convento
de los Franciscanos de Nuestra Señora de la Luz, with its sober
cloister courtyard. Near the convent stands the Ermita del Buen Jesús,
built in the sixteenth century with a Renaissance air. Other spots of
religious interest are the sixteenth-century Convento de las
Comendadoras and the seventeenth-century Baroque-style Convento de
Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.
The
fortress of Brozas, standing in the highest part of the town, is made
up by buildings tagged on at different times. The keep, stables and an
arcaded courtyard still remain. It dates back at least to 1397 when it
is known to have repelled a sacking attempt by Portuguese troops. In
1413 the building was demolished and only the keep was saved, still
standing today. In the seventeenth century the fortress served as a
defensive bulwark during the war with Portugal;
it was at this time that the bank-like walls were raised. The access
portal is flanked by two false towers built into the defensive wall.
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