Cáceres

People lived around Cáceres long before the town existed. The Cave of Maltravieso, inside today's city, holds hand stencils, one of them dated in a 2018 study to 64,000 years ago, which would make it older than the arrival of modern humans in Europe and point to Neanderthal artists, though the dating is disputed. The Romans set up camps here in the 1st century BC, among them Castra Caecilia, and the colony of Norba Caesarina grew on the hill beside the road later called the Vía de la Plata; a gate of its walls, the Arco del Cristo, survives.

After the Visigoths the town faded, and it rose again as a Muslim frontier fortress. The Almohad caliph Abd al-Mumin refounded it in 1147, and its walls and towers, of which around thirty remain, date largely from this period. The Portuguese adventurer Geraldo Sempavor took it in the 1160s, León held it briefly, and the Almohads recovered it in 1174. Alfonso IX of León finally took it on 23 April 1229 after repeated sieges, and made it a royal town with its own council.

Noble families built houses and small palaces within the walls, many enriched by the Reconquest and, later, by fortunes made in the Americas. In the 15th century their quarrels tore the town apart, and in 1477 Isabella I, staying here during the War of the Castilian Succession, issued an ordinance to pacify them. The Jewish community, about 140 families in the 15th century, was expelled in 1492. In 1790 Charles IV made Cáceres the seat of the Royal Court of Extremadura, and in 1822 it became a provincial capital. In 1936 the garrison backed the military coup, more than 600 people were shot in the repression, and Franco made the city his headquarters before advancing on Madrid. The old town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

The old town is the city's identity. Its blend of Roman, Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance building earned the Council of Europe's recognition in 1968 and UNESCO status in 1986, and its untouched streets have made it a film set, used by Game of Thrones and the Spanish series Isabel. The coats of arms carved over doorways record the noble families who built it.

The calendar is full. Holy Week processions squeeze through the steep lanes, and on the feast of San Jorge, the patron saint, in April, a dragon is burnt in the Plaza Mayor. WOMAD, the world music festival founded by Peter Gabriel, has an edition here that is unusual for taking place inside a monumental city, and there are festivals of early music, black music, pop art and Irish music, a classical theatre festival in June and a large medieval market in November. The Contemporary Ibero-American Art Fair in April and the Helga de Alvear museum give the city a strong contemporary art scene.

Storks are part of the city's image, nesting on towers, churches and eaves across the old town. The University of Extremadura, founded in 1973, has a campus here, and students bring the bars around the Plaza Mayor to life in term time. Sport means CP Cacereño in football and Cáceres Basket.

About 96,600 people lived in the municipality in 2025, nearly all in the city itself. The municipality is the largest in Spain by area, at 1,750 square kilometres, scattered with hamlets, castles and old farmhouses. The real population swings by thousands with the university term and the army training centre. About a fifth of residents are over 65, and around 7 per cent were born abroad, most often in Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela, Morocco or Peru.

The economy is one of services and administration. Cáceres is a provincial capital, seat of the region's high court and of several departments of the regional government, and a university city, and tourism, concentrated in the old town, is an important part of the economy.

The old town district has fewer than 6,000 residents. Most people live in the modern centre and in districts such as Mejostilla and Aldea Moret, a former mining village now absorbed into the city. Days follow the heat in summer, with life moving outdoors in the evening, and the Paseo de Cánovas and the Plaza Mayor are the places to walk.

Cáceres cooks from the dehesa and the sheepfold. The province's famous cheese, Torta del Casar, comes from Casar de Cáceres just north of the city: made from the milk of Merino and Entrefina sheep and curdled with the dried pistils of the wild cardoon, it ripens until the centre is soft enough to spoon out once the top is cut away, with a slight bitterness under its richness. It holds a protected designation since 1999.

The city is known for its stews and roast meats, especially pork, lamb and game, and for migas, a dish made from stale bread that began as shepherds' food. Some places serve red peppers stuffed with fish, cornmeal or lamb, and trout, honey and pastries are other local strengths. Cheeses made with paprika, and the province's pimentón de la Vera, turn up in many dishes, along with cured hams and other pork products.

Convents in the old town sell sweets and pastries baked by the nuns. To drink, Extremadura's red wines are affordable and full-bodied, and the local designation is Ribera del Guadiana; liqueurs include cherry from the nearby Jerte valley, chestnut and blackberry. Small shops in the old streets sell fig cake, cheese and ham to take home.