Informazioni Generali
Plasencia is located in the north of Estremadura and has over 42,000 inhabitants (known as placetinos). Of these placentinos the most famous are Doña Inés Suárez, lover of Pedro de Valdivia, conqueror of Chile, and Roberto Iniesta, leader of the rock group Extremoduro.
The weather in the city is mostly the same as in the rest of Estremadura, meaning cold winters and hot summers.
The economy is based on the services sector, the construction sector and the industry of typical regional products like beef of Estremadura and Vera paprika.
La Storia
Plasencia’s history from before the reconquest and refoundation of 1186 is largely unknown. Celtic remains have been found and we also know that there was a Roman military encampment here. But history of the city mainly begins when Alfonso VIII took the city in 1186. He ordered the construction of the defensive wall, but completion of the wall took longer than expected because the city was retaken by the Arabs in 1196. They ruled for 5 years until they were expelled again in 1201.
The city remained an independent free city until 1442, when king Juan II of Castilla gave the city to Pedro de Zúñiga, who became the count of the city, much to the dismay of many citizens.in 1488 the city was passed over to the Catholic Kings, who used the city as a military outpost and base for, among others, the famous Battle of Tolosa and their campaigns into Flanders and Italy.
The city flourished during this age and many fortified houses, hospitals, convents were built. Construction of the Old Cathedral also took place.
All throughout the Middle Ages the city suffered from various feuds between influential families but these were mostly settled by the time construction of the New Cathedral began in the 16th century
Not all problems were over however because population drastically decreased over the years, thanks to the expulsion of all Arabs and Jews, and so the number of inhabitants at the end of the 18th century dropped to below 5,000.
Other factors that influenced the decay of the city were the various wars that took place between Castilla and Portugal, the War for Succession and various food crises and epidemics, all of which caused many victims during the 17th and 18th century. At the time of the War for Independence the city served as the headquarters for the patriotic troops and also for the French and Anglo-Portuguese troops. In the 19th and first part of the 20th century the city endured more crises, but from the 1940s onwards the city recovered and the services sector developed and the city once again became a meeting point for all surrounding regions. Nowadays it is a quiet city but it remains a fixed reference point in the region.
Cosa stai cercando a Plasencia?
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