Olivenza

People have lived near Olivenza since at least the Lower Palaeolithic. Tools found beside the Guadiana river date back more than 100,000 years, and petroglifos near Cheles go back at least 15,000. The clearest early remains, though, are Chalcolithic, found at Monte Nuevo and the sierra de Alor.

Dolmens on local estates date to around 1500 BC, and figurative steles from roughly 700 BC have turned up at Monte Blanco. Roman remains are modest, a bathhouse at La Cocosa farm, suggesting no major settlement here. A Visigothic basilica was found at Valdecebadal, and recent excavations beneath the Torre del Rey revealed an Arab qubba and an underground qanat, pointing to an Islamic origin for the actual town nucleus.

The modern town's story begins in 1230, when Alfonso IX of León rewarded the Templars for their help in taking Badajoz by granting them nearby enclaves. From those bases, around 1256, the Order established the encomienda of Olivenza, at that point little more than market gardens, huts and a few houses around a spring. In 1297, by the Treaty of Alcañices, Castile ceded Olivenza to Portugal.

King Dinis I granted the town a royal charter in 1298, elevated it to the status of a vila and ordered its first walls built. Alfonso IV of Portugal later raised the great Torre del Homenaje, which Juan II reinforced in 1488 to make it the tallest tower in Portugal at 36 metres. In 1510, Manuel I added a fortified bridge over the Guadiana to secure Portuguese military movement on the left bank.

The castle at the heart of Olivenza was originally built by the Knights Templar and then walled by King Dinis I of Portugal in 1298. Its thick medieval walls survive without battlements, while the towers keep their machicolations. The Torre del Homenaje, built under Alfonso IV of Portugal and reinforced by João II in 1488, stands 36 metres tall and 18 metres wide, making it the tallest tower in Portugal at the time.

It has three floors, the top one notable for its decoration, and is reached by seventeen vaulted ramps. Two gates, the Puerta de Alconchel and the Puerta de los Ángeles, are framed by circular towers and have semicircular arched openings. The Puerta de la Gracia and a reconstructed Puerta de San Sebastián complete the medieval enclosure.

Today the alcázar houses the Museo Etnográfico González Santana, named after its founder Francisco González Santana, with a detailed recreation of rural life in the Olivenza area in the early twentieth century. Beyond the castle, the town has two parish churches, Santa María del Castillo and Santa María Magdalena, as well as the Santa Casa de la Misericordia, a convent of Poor Clares (San Juan de Dios), and the town hall with its Manueline doorway. The star-shaped bastioned fortifications, the Puerta del Calvario, the Ajuda bridge over the Guadiana, and the bullring round out the main monuments.

The alcázar and its walls are protected under the decree of 22 April 1949 and Spain's Historical Heritage Law 16/1985.

Olivenza is reached by regional road from Badajoz. The town is small enough to cover entirely on foot. The most traditional local sweet is técula mécula, a tart made with almonds, egg yolk, sugar and puff pastry.

Other typical sweets include piñonates and various confections of Andalusi influence made from puff pastry, nuts and honey.