Days 23-25: Trujillo - remnants of conquistadors

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all? 

This was the fifth time we've stayed in or near Trujillo in Extremadura. There must be something about the place that attracts us back, despite its past of horrific exploitation of Peru and beyond. In our mind, that centres on the vast and sloping Plaza Mayor:

Since this was very close to our 'humble' accommodation (see the previous posting in this blog), it's there that we started our re-acquaintance with the city each day. We'd have breakfast in our apartment (and on the last day - today ... Sunday - we'd listen to the Global Village at the same time, marvelling at the quick trip that I'd made to Melbourne and back overnight to present the program).

And then we'd amble up to the plaza, and stand near the central fountain and reflect on what we'd do today:

A good start, we decided, was to go to the Tourist Office in the plaza and book ourselves in to an English speaking tour. When there wasn't a personal guide available, we took the audio-guided tour with 27 stops, including recommendation for those that were paid entry:

We decided not to try all 27, but to do a selection of these.

Touring the old city

First up was the Palacio de San Carlos, behind the large church on the plaza. The roofline was pointed out to us as symbolic of the various religions that had been colonised and 'destroyed' by Christianity:

It has a very typical carved corner window and balcony overlooking the plaza:

On another corner of the plaza, there is a similar corner window in the Palacio de los Pizarro, built by the brother of Francisco Pizarro, 'conquerer' of Peru:

The plaque tells more information about this shameful history of conquest, exploitation and slavery - on the back of which this town was built:

And the carving details show more of this historic and shameful legacy:

Santa Maria

We wandered further upwards into the old town to the Church of Santa Maria:

People are at pains to tell us that this is not the church in the main square, but is still the main church of the town. Some details follow, from someone else describing it:

"Santa Maria la Mayor is built, it is believed, on the foundations of a former Muslim Mosque. Remember that this part of Spain was under Muslim rule for seven centuries - that's three times as long as the Romans were in Britain.

"Its life as a Catholic church dates from 1233, after the reconquest of the town, when it was converted into a Christian building and extensively enlarged. The building continued over many centuries, giving a mixture of styles: romanesque, gothic, plateresque.

"I say many centuries as various maintenance works continued until very recently. In 1972 there was reconstruction being carried out on one of the two towers of the church, and the stonemason, who was a fan of the Bilbao Athletic football club, carved at the top of one of the pillars of this tower - the shield of the club!

"When this became obvious, there were mixed feelings in the town, especially as the work had been paid for by some Ministry in Madrid. But luckily the inspector sent by the Ministry was an Athletic fan, and gave permission for the shield to remain.

"The outside of the building is somewhat austere, although the two towers are very attractive. Inside, however, the main altar is stunning, well worth venturing inside to see it."

As well as wandering around the inside, we decided to climb the tower (as we had done previously) and regretted it (the effort! the vertigo!) (as we had done previously):

But the view was also stunning (as it had been previously):

including storks' nests in the adjacent tower (Pat's favourites - the ever-present 'clackers'):

Aljibe

Near there, and this was something we hadn't heard of or seen previously, and only accessible on a tour, was an aljibe or cistern. Access is via a small, unassuming door in a wall:

There are walkways through the cistern (reminding us of similar cisterns in Matera in Italy and Istanbul in Turkey):

and outside, there was some form of washing or bathing area:

Castle

The other part of the tour (and this was not all done in one day, but spread over the three days we have been here) is up to the Trujillo castle. This sits on the top of the hill on which the town is situated:

It is massive, and somewhat reconstructed, as we could see as we drew closer:

Each time we have visited here, we have taken a similar photo: through a gateway into the courtyard, framing a tree. Sometimes it is verdant; sometimes its is skeletal: at least it is still here:

which we could also see from the walls. Yep, you can climb and walk around these:

and look down on the Plaza Mayor:

over the wider city walls:

and down to a that ruined church on the edge of the town:

(We later wandered down here to have a closer look, but couldn't get in:)

It wasn't on the tour, but we thought we might try to circumnavigate the whole city walls, so started on this journey, but found them too extensive - and, in some places, too inaccessible. The most interesting parts however, a new discovery for us, were near and behind the cemetery:

where we could also look back at the upper town:

Lavadero Publicó

We saw marked on a map that there was an interesting site nearby, but outside the city, which we'd not visited before. This tuned out to be a Public Laundry, about a 30 minute walk from where we were staying, down and under the main highway (I didn't think you could drive there - or at least not without navigating small dirt tracks - though someone had obviously done so):

José Antonio Ramos Rubio, the official chronicler of Trujillo has written about the fascinating story of it - see https://www.lavaderospublicos.net/2016/05/lavadero-publico-de-trujillo.html

Having made it out here, we wandered around the pretty site a little:

before ambling back to Trujillo in the distance - a good walk:

Food

We can't leave a destination without commenting on our ongoing tendency to eat (too much). Here, we tried various places, with mixed results (though didn't return to the vast quantities of food at the La Troya restaurant in the plaza ... we'll tell you that story in person one day). Just around the corner from us was one restaurant:

which looked nice inside:

and had a shady courtyard:

We ate there one evening (early for them), trying their grilled vegetable specialty:

and other dishes:

but sadly, in searching for postres, this is not a banana split:

So, one last look this evening at the Plaza Mayor, for tomorrow it's onwards to Portugal and Évora.