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The
most important part of its cultural and historical legacy is without
doubt the Jewish district, the best example of the Hebraic cultural
inheritance in the whole of Spain. The Hebraic community of Hervás settled there in the first decades of the tenth century, moving in from the aljamas (Jewish congregations) of Andalusia and Castile,
and living in tolerance with the Christian community. In the Calle de
la Amistad Judeo Cristiana, at number 15, is the communal wine press
where kosher wine was made. In the Calle Rabilero stands the Sinagoga
de Rabí Simuel, the synagogue named after a rabbi and doctor who lived
until 1492.
Hervás
also boasts a valuable Roman legacy in the form of two single-span
bridges: Fuente Chiquita and Santi Hervás. Other buildings to take in
are the eighteenth-century Palacio de los Dávila, now housing the Museo
Pérez Comendador-Magdalena Leroux, exhibiting the work of the sculptor
Enrique Pérez Comendador and of his wife, and the Renaissance Iglesia
de Santa María de Aguas Vivas.
This
lovely town is surrounding by the leafiest scenery of this part of the
Sierra de Béjar. Sweet Chestnut woods abound intermingled with copses
of Pyrenean Oak, making the whole area a wonderland for bird watchers.
There are also botanical gems in the woods of Hervás; over a dozen
orchid species have been found growing here, some very rare and
hitherto unknown in these latitudes. © Alhena Media
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