Granadilla

Granadilla began as a Muslim stronghold on a slate hill commanding the Vía de la Plata, the ancient route through Extremadura. Its most defensible side, the northwest, was reinforced with an alcazaba by the Almohads. In 1160, King Fernando II of León took the town, then simply called Granada, from Arab control, rebuilt it, surrounded it with walls, and granted it the title of villa in 1170.

It was meant to serve as a buffer against Muslim advance from the south. The town's name was changed to Granadilla after the Catholic Monarchs conquered Granada in 1492, to avoid confusion. In 1191, King Alfonso IX ceded the town to the Order of Santiago.

It later returned to the Crown, then passed in 1282 to the Infante Pedro de Castilla, who held it alongside Ledesma, Alba de Tormes and several other lordships, including towns now in Portugal. When his line died out in 1312, Granadilla reverted to the Crown. From 1310 it had a vote in the Cortes.

Over the following century it passed through several noble hands, including Leonor de Alburquerque and her descendants, until Juan II of Castile confiscated the lordship. In 1446 he granted it to the Álvarez de Toledo, Dukes of Alba, who held it by royal gift until 1830. During the ducal period, the Gil de Roda family was among the most prominent in the town council.

The Giménez family grew considerably in influence during the disentailment period, acquiring much of the ducal estate. The Dukes of Alba gradually disposed of their holdings during that era, keeping only the castle until 1893. In the twentieth century the town's fate was sealed by infrastructure: a 1955 Council of Ministers decree ordered the expropriation of most of Granadilla's municipal territory, including the town itself, for the construction of the Gabriel y Galán reservoir.

Residents were formally notified on 15 June 1960 that the state had taken legal possession. The last inhabitants left in 1964.

The castle is the most significant structure in Granadilla. It was commissioned by García Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, between 1473 and 1478, and built by Juan Carrera and Tomás Bretón. The design consists of a central prismatic body with four semicylindrical towers, one on each side.

Inside the walls, the town was laid out in a radioconcentric pattern around the main square, which sits at the highest point. This was where the principal families, the señorial council members and leading residents once lived. Although restoration work after the town's abandonment altered many houses, a number of architecturally significant ones survive with their structures largely intact.

Among those still recognisable: the house known as the "Casa de las Conchas" and the adjoining property, originally the home of Fausto Giménez y Velaz de Batuecas, the largest house in the town, though only the façade remains, its interior having given way to a football pitch and new construction. The house now called the "Casa del Ayuntamiento" stands next to the old council building; it was also a Giménez property, eventually used by Valentina García de la Cruz. The "Casa del Minarete" was the home of Ramón Giménez and his wife Aurelia García de la Cruz.

What is now called the "Casa de los Arcos" was assembled from several smaller houses and substantially rebuilt, and looks quite different from its original form. The square also contains the oldest stone buildings on the plaza: the former court of first instance and the Civil Guard barracks. The town hall lost its bell tower during the years of abandonment.

The main religious monument is the parish church of the Asunción, a Gothic structure belonging to the diocese of Coria-Cáceres. The rectory stands close to the castle.