Malpartida de Plasencia

The town's own archives were burned during the Peninsular War, when fighting along the Tiétar river brought Napoleonic forces through the area — so the date of Malpartida's founding is simply not known. What archaeology does confirm is that people lived here long before any written record: prehistoric remains have been found in the municipal area, including the tower known as the Calamoco, and there are also traces of Roman occupation.

The first written mention of the present town dates to 1494, when it had around 180 inhabitants. By 1513, men from the area were already crossing the Atlantic; Diego Gómez de Malpartida is the earliest recorded local to have taken part in the conquest of the Americas. The town's population grew steadily: a 1791 survey counted 405 householders, and by the census of 1842 there were 400 households and 2,191 residents. By the mid-nineteenth century, roughly 460 houses had been recorded.

After the fall of the Ancien Régime, Malpartida became a constitutional municipality within Extremadura and was incorporated into the judicial district of Plasencia from 1834. The geographer Pascual Madoz included the town in his monumental geographical dictionary of Spain. In 1961, Malpartida was officially granted the title of villa.

The town's main monument is the parish church of San Juan Bautista, a building from the sixteenth century that was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural — Spain's highest heritage category — by the regional government of Extremadura in October 2018. It belongs to the diocese of Plasencia. The town also has four hermitages: San Blas, San Gregorio, San Cristóbal, and the Virgen de la Luz, who is venerated as the patron of Malpartida.