Saturday 1st March 2025 – Caceres, Spain

Sure enough, it was cold this morning, down to 5C when we left to catch the bus from the campsite entrance. That took us into the centre of Caceres and a short walk took us to the historic centre and the tourist information office in the Plaza Mayor. The staff were very helpful, providing a map, highlighting a recommended route and main sites to see.
We were very impressed with the architecture of Burgos and Avila but Caceres is a big step up, hence the World Heritage status. The historic centre is stuffed full of towers and palaces and everywhere that you turn there are impressive doorways, balconies, carved stone embellishments and coats of arms. There are said to be 1,300 stone carved coats of arms in the city and, although I can’t verify the exact number, we did see a great many.
Some of the ancient city walls still exist and we started our tour by climbing a tower next to the tourist information office and taking a short walk along the wall to a second tower. Next we went to the cathedral, which was less impressive than those of Burgos and Avila but still interesting. We were able to climb the tower that gave excellent views over the city. I noticed that it was just before noon and speculated that the bells that we were right next to might chime the hour. When they started, it still made us jump and the noise was deafening – a great experience!
We wandered through the city admiring the architecture and returned to the Plaza Mayor, finding a restaurant for another excellent ‘menu del dia’. The museum had a very long queue for entry when we passed it earlier in the morning so we did some more wandering and returned to the museum when it reopened at 16:00.
The museum had an excellent collection of Bronze Age ‘Warrior Stelae’. Archaeologists are not certain of their purpose, although often described as warrior grave markers, they could be boundary stones or even a combination, a boundary stone celebrating a particular warrior. They are only found in Southern Iberia and we have seen other examples in Southern Portugal. The stelae show weapons and possessions of warriors and, sometimes, stylised pictures of a warrior.
The other highlight of the museum was the cistern in the basement. Moorish arches are supported on Roman and Visigoth pillars. The water from the roof and courtyard is still collected and enhances the architecture of the room.
Heading back out of the historic centre we caught the bus back to the campsite.
Photos: Plaza Mayor with the Torre de Bujaco on the left; View of the Plaza Major from the tower; The bells ringing in the cathedral tower; An alleyway in the old city; One of the many impressive doorways; A warrior Stele from the 9^th or 8^th century BC showing a lance, mirror, brooch and comb at the top, a shield in the middle and a sword at the bottom; The cistern under the museum.