Page 411 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

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carved wooden choir stalls.
The Romanesque Catedral Vieja,
next to it, has a mu seum
with works by Ribera, and a
late 14th-century Bible.
The Museo Etno gráfico y
Textil Pérez Enciso, housed
in a 14th-century hospital, has
dis plays of crafts and costumes.
The rest of the Jerte Valley has
pockets of outstanding beauty,
such as the Garganta de los
Infiernos, a nature reserve with
dramatic, rush ing waterfalls.
E Museo Etnográfico y
Ancient wall and olive groves in the Textil Pérez Enciso A Carantoña, during the fiesta of
Valle del Ambroz Plaza del Marqués de la Puebla. St Sebastian, Acehuche
Tel 927 42 18 43. Open Mon–Sat
4 Coria (winter: Wed–Sun). Extremadura’s Fiestas
Cáceres. * 13,000. @ n Plaza de Carantoñas (20–21 Jan),
San Pedro 1, 927 50 80 00. ( Thu. 6 Monasterio de Acehúche (Cáceres). During
_ Día de la Virgen (2nd Mon in May), the fiesta of St Sebastian,
San Juan (23–29 Jun). ∑ turismo. Yuste the Carantoñas take to the
coria.org Cuacos de Yuste (Cáceres). Tel 927 17 streets of the town dressed
21 97. Open Tue–Sun. Closed some up in animal skins, with their
Coria’s walled old town, perched pub hols. & (free from 3pm Wed & faces cov ered by grotesque
above the Río Alagón, boasts a Thu for EU res; from 5pm Apr–Sep). masks designed to make
Gothic-Renaissance cathedral 7 ∑ patrimonionacional.es them look terrifying. They
with rich Plateresque carving, represent the wild beasts
and the 16th-century Convento Yuste’s Hieronymite monastery, which are said to have left
de la Madre de Dios, which has where Charles V (see p63) retired the saint unharmed.
a fine Renaissance cloister. from public life in 1557 and died Pero Palo (Carnival Feb/Mar),
Forming part of the town a year later, is remarkable for its Villanueva de la Vera
walls, which are a Muslim and sim plicity and its setting in the (Cáceres). In this ancient ritual
medieval patchwork, are an wooded valley of La Vera. The a wooden figure dressed in a
imposing castle tower, and four church’s Gothic and Plateresque suit and representing the
gates, two of which date back cloisters and the austere palace devil is paraded around the
to Roman times. The gates are are open to visitors. streets and then destroyed –
closed for the fiesta of San Juan From here, a single-track road except for the head, which is
in June for night-time bull- leads to the village of Garganta reused the year after.
running. Situated below the la Olla, with its half-timbered Los Empalaos (Maundy
Thursday), Valverde de la
old town is the Puente Seco, or architecture and the bright-blue Vera (Cáceres). Men do
Puente Viejo, a Roman bridge. Casa de las Muñecas building. penance by walking in
procession through the
5 Plasencia town with their arms
outstretched and bound to
Cáceres. * 41,000. £ @ n Santa wooden plough beams.
Clara 4, 927 42 38 43. ( Tue. _ La Encamisá (7–8 Dec),
Ferias (6–8 Jun). ∑ plasencia.es Torrejoncillo (Cáceres).
Riders on horseback,
Plasencia’s golden-grey walls, covered in white cloth,
rising above a curve in the parade around town, where
banks of the Río Jerte, tell of bonfires are set alight for
the town’s past as a military the occasion.
bastion. Nowadays Plasencia Los Escobazos (7 Dec),
is best known for its Tuesday Jarandilla de la Vera
market, dating back to the (Cáceres). At night, the
town is illuminated by
12th century. bonfires in the streets, and
A short walk away are the torches are made from
town’s two cathedrals, which burning brooms.
are built back-to-back. The
15th- to 16th-century Catedral The Casa de las Muñecas (House of the
Nueva has a Baroque organ and Dolls), a former brothel in Garganta la Olla

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