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The
Arco de la Estrella is an arch that ushers us into the Plaza Mayor.
Here we should note the Almohad legacy in the Torre de La Hierba and
the awesome 25-metre tall Torre de Bujaco, built in remembrance of the
Almohad caliph Abu Ya´Qub, who, as legend has it, ordered forty knights
of the Order of Santiago to be executed.
Our
proposed route passes through the Arco de La Estrella, where Queen
Isabel the Catholic granted Cáceres its city charter and privileges.
From there we move on to the Plaza de Santa María, whose most important
building is the Iglesia de Santa María La Mayor, a veritable symbol of
the city with the category of concathedral. It was built in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in transitional Romanesque-Gothic
style. It has two Gothic portals and a three-storey Renaissance tower.
Inside, the Plateresque sacristy is adorned with shields and
escutcheons of the grandees of Cáceres. It has two important chapels,
the Capilla de Santa Ana and the Capilla del Santísimo Cristo, the latter housing the Black Christ. It was officially listed as an Artistic-HistoricMonument on 3 June 1931.
On
the northern side of the square stands the Palacio Episcopal, one of
the citys oldest palaces, with a fifteenth-century Gothic main front
bearing the coat of arms of the bishop, Alonso Enríquez de Mendoza.
Opposite the apse of the Iglesia de Santa María stands the Palacio de
Carvajal, built in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles. The main
front has an alfiz framing the shield of the Carvajal; a tower stands
on one corner, known as the Torre Redonda. The palace was bought in
1985 by the provincial council of Cáceres to be used as the head office
of the provinces Tourism and Craftsmanship Promotion Board.
Another
interesting construction is the Palacio de Los Golfines de Abajo, one
of the finest buildings of the old part of the city. It was built by
the Golfín family after the reconquest of the city. At first it was a
fortress house, the only trace of which remains today is the tower with
two machicoloations. In the sixteenth century decorative features of
Plateresque style were tagged on to the main front, as well as the coat
of arms of the Catholic Monarchs, who used it as a residence when they
visited the town. Also, on the left-hand part of the wall there are two
decorative medallions with the shield of the Golfin family.
Beside the tower of the Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo we gain access to the Plaza de
San Jorge, one of the citys most authentic squares, with the Iglesia de San Francisco
Javier. A little further on, up the Cuesta de La Compañía we come to
the highest point of the walled part of the city, the Plaza de San Mateo, with a clutch of admirable ancestral homes.
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