Hornachos

Rock paintings at the Abrigos de la Sillá shelters show people have lived in this part of Extremadura since the Neolithic. In Roman times the town was a staging point on the route to Augusta Emérita (Mérida) and to the Roman baths at Alange. The Romans called it Fornacis, and the name Hornachos itself derives from the Latin fornus — a furnace — referring to the kilns used to smelt local silver-bearing galena ore from mines in the area.

After 711, Muslim settlers took control and built a substantial fortress along the ridge of the sierra above the town. In 1235 King Fernando III of Castile granted Hornachos to the Order of Santiago following the Partition of Medellín. By the late medieval period it had become the largest Mudéjar community in the Crown of Castile, and a 1594 census recorded over a thousand taxpaying households.

When Philip III issued his decree expelling the Moriscos, much of the population was forced to leave. Roughly a third may have stayed, sheltered by old Christian families. The town fell into sharp decline after the expulsions — becoming, by some accounts, a refuge for criminals and smugglers, serious enough that military forces were stationed there to restore order.

The exiled Moriscos had an extraordinary afterlife. They founded a pirate republic near present-day Rabat, in Salé, that troubled both the Spanish and French crowns. Some families even opened negotiations with the Spanish monarchy about returning to Hornachos. Among those who settled in Morocco, the Vargas and Correon families took the names Bargach and Karioun. By the 1842 census the town held 623 households and around 2,600 residents.

Hornachos was once a significant centre of Mudéjar art in Extremadura — at its peak the town supported four churches, a hermitage, and a convent, all reflecting the long Muslim presence in the area.

The most important surviving building is the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción, begun in 1511. It has three naves with a Gothic chancel, pointed arches resting on brick piers, and wooden ceilings. The central section of the ceiling carries the imperial coat of arms of Charles V, which is worth looking up for.

The Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios houses the venerated image of the town's patron saint, and her feast day falls on 8 September.

The Franciscan Convent of San Ildefonso was founded by Charles I, with construction continued under Philip II. Its interior retablos and its exterior façade are considered the highlights. The convent is also the setting for several of the town's main celebrations — the Feast of St John, the Feast of St Francis, and the Zoco Morisco, a festival that recalls the town's Moorish heritage.