Bien: Conjunto Monumental de Cáceres
Comunidad Autónoma: C.A. Extremadura
Provincia: Cáceres
Municipio: Cáceres
Categoría: Conjunto Histórico
Código: (R.I.) - 53 - 0000016 - 00000
Registro: (R.I.) REGISTRO BIC INMUEBLES: Código definitivo
Fecha de Declaración: 21-01-1949
Fecha Boletín Declaración: 02-02-1949
"The topography determines the urban development of Cáceres as it is elevated on an uneven terrain, between the Sierra de la Mosca and the Sierrilla, on a soil of hardened quartzites and an abundance of granites.
This land provides abundant construction material that the Romans used to build the rectangular wall of 68,000 square meters and, centuries later, the nobles of Cáceres used to build their mansions, mainly using granite, slate and quartzite. The latter played a very important role because it allows water to filter and this facilitated the construction of wells and cisterns in buildings.
Remains of the wall at the base and one of its gates, the Arco del Cristo , are preserved from Roman times .
With the arrival of the Almohads, Cáceres resurfaced again. They raise the wall again, demolished during the clashes with the barbarian peoples, building it with adobe.
Of the Almohads we are pleased to remember that the cistern is preserved, the construction they used to collect water, currently located in the basement of the Palacio de las Veletas , which curiously is today one of the main museums in the province.
Starting in 1229, after the reconquest of the city by the troops of Alfonso IX and the subsequent repopulation with people from the kingdom of León, Asturias and Galicia, who would take over the power of the land, the strong houses of the intramural city. These buildings will lose their defensive aspect once the Renaissance arrives, a safer time and a moment in which they will be embellished and will show a more palatial aspect, with greater opening of bays and patios.
The two intramural districts, arising around the parishes of Santa María and San Mateo, develop an urban layout characterized by winding, narrow, irregular streets and, generally, with a steep slope, where the different palaces and noble houses are erected. In addition, on the eastern flank of the wall, is the Jewish quarter, which after the expulsion in 1492 was renamed Barrio de San Antonio .
The natural growth of the population produces an expansion of the town outside the walls. Starting in the 14th century, a new collation was born, that of Santiago, around the parish of the same name, and a neighborhood was configured that would connect with the wall. The collations were groups of neighbors with a legal entity, settled in a specific area of ??the urban area, united among themselves by common social, religious and economic interests. Public life and representation developed around them.
In the collation of Santiago we find different ancestral constructions: the Duke of Abrantes palace, the Roco Godoy palace and a public construction, the Hospital de la Piedad, later converted into the palace of the Royal Court of the region and which today houses the headquarters of the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura . Another collation outside the walls is that of San Juan Bautista.
The greater growth and expansion of the city, together with the creation of these collations, caused the Plazuela de Santa María to lose interest as a center of commercial life and, from the 14th century, a new, larger and more open space appeared on the scene. , the Plaza Mayor, a large rectangle, somewhat irregular and with a gentle slope, surrounded by houses whose main floors rest on porticoes covered with groined vaults, where the different professional guilds of Cáceres were located , as well as the Town Hall. The Plaza was the perfect place to celebrate the fairs, the market, the processions, etc.
Since then, the New Gate - from the 18th century, Arco de la Estrella - was the point of union between the intramural enclosure and the extramural city, becoming the main entrance to the wall.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, important reforms were carried out in some private buildings in the city, and in the 19th century the growth of Cáceres continued with a new expansion, from the church of San Juan to the future Paseo de Cánovas."
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