Convent of Las Capuchinas

The convent of Las Capuchinas was built at the end of the 16th century by will of the alderman Juan Rodríguez Cano and his wife Beatriz de Contrera. Rodríguez Cano had acquired a large fortune as an indiano, and it was said that on his return voyage to Europe he had been saved from a dangerous storm thanks to an image of the Virgin of Copacabana that he had brought with him on the ship, which is why he decided to found a temple to house this image.

The founder of the convent died with minor heirs at a very young age, so it could not be ceded to a religious order until 1635, when his grandson Juan de Nebrija y Cano took the necessary steps to open it. The convent was ceded to the Order of Capuchin Poor Clares and in 1636 the first eight cloistered nuns arrived from the convent that this order had in Madrid.

Due to this long break in the foundation process, the building is much more notable for its 17th-century interior furnishings than for its 16th-century structure. The façade has hardly any decoration, the only element that stands out on the outside being a lintelled doorway with large ashlars, above which there is a coat of arms and a small relief of a figure that could be Saint Anne, the patron saint of the convent. The 17th-century paintings and imagery include works by the Baroque artists Francisco Rizi and Gregorio Fernández; however, the main element inside the building is the main altarpiece of the convent church, which, due to its style, has been dated to the 18th century.

The convent is still inhabited today by Capuchin nuns. This convent is one of the three communities of nuns that still exist in the city, together with the Dominican nuns of the convent of La Encarnación and the Discalced Carmelites, although the latter abandoned their historic convent in 1993 and now live in a new building in the Santa Bárbara mountain range. However, there is a risk of the Capuchin community disappearing due to lack of vocations: in September 2015, the nuns left their convent in Pláceres to move to Granada, although they returned in February 2016.

The convent church hosts a mass at half past twelve on weekdays and on Sundays and public holidays, with the diocese of Plasencia sending a priest for this purpose.6 The convent is known in the city for its Christmas celebrations, as it houses a 19th century image of the Infant Jesus known as “el Cubanito”, whose local devotion led to the founding of a nativity scene association here in 2003.

Convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns

Founded in the 17th century in the former family home of the Casa de la Cerda, one of the great Castilian families, whose matriarch was a great friend of Saint Teresa of Jesus and referred to her on several occasions in her writings. However, although Saint Teresa asked the family to cede the property for the creation of the convent, they refused, but she predicted that this would happen and it was fulfilled when Maria de la Cerda, a descendant of the family, ceded the palace of Los Arcos for the Discalced Carmelites.

This prophecy of the Saint could be seen in an inscription in the choir of the church, but the convent has been abandoned for years.

In the old chapel of the Carmelite convent are the tombstones of Maria de la Cerda and her parents. Died in 1616, the tombstone forbids anyone else to be buried in the grave.

Inside, the altars are particularly noteworthy. The largest, Baroque and gilded, covered the entire front of the presbytery, and in one of them was an image of Saint Teresa, which is attributed to Gregorio Fernández.

The façade of the convent overlooks Santa Ana street and Plazuela de El Salvador, this building is made of granite, masonry, brick and adobe. The façade of the conventual temple of the Carmelite nuns is recognisable by its stately door under the coat of arms of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and the founder of the convent herself; it has a slender neoclassical architecture and is made of very fine granite stone.

On the corner of Calle de Santa Ana and El Salvador there is a coat of arms of Bishop José Jiménez Samaniego, and above a door in Calle de Santa Ana, two coats of arms; a castle on waves, and a band with two eagles.

At present, the Carmelitas is owned by the Fundación Bancaria Caja de Extremadura, acquired by the Obra Social of the financial institution before the restructuring in order to create the museum to house the funds of the Salón de Otoño de Pintura, an international art competition with more than 40 years of history. But the 2005 crisis brought the project to a halt.

The Church of San Salvador gives its name to the square where it is located and to one of the shutters of the wall, given its proximity.

San Salvador is one of the original parishes of the city of Plasencia and is Romanesque in style, although it culminates in Gothic due to the different reconstructions over the centuries.

The only nave, with a wooden roof, was ruined in 1774 and was restored for 14 years by the Franciscan master builder Fray Andres Hernandez, with a brick structure. The last reconstruction of the church of El Salvador de Plasencia took place in the 18th century due to the collapse of the roof and the central nave was restored with rough vaults. The main doorway is simple with a pointed arch and three archivolts, without decorations.

Inside, the austerity of the altar stands out, as well as the various burial sites, such as that of the Los Moretas family, a chapel founded by Hernán López de Moreta, mayor of the fortress married to Inés de Trejo.
The last was in the 21st century that of Bishop Cipriano Calderon Polo, founder of L’Observatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican.

In addition, the church of San Salvador houses the images of Our Lady of the Fifth Anguish in polychrome wood (16th century), and Our Lady of the Port, in alabaster, from the 15th century.

Christ of the Battles

The Church of Santiago was built between the 15th and 16th centuries, and has always been linked to pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Although the Silver Route does not pass through the town because it was founded later, medieval pilgrims passed through here to obtain shelter and provisions in its many charitable hospitals, before continuing their route through the mountains of Béjar.

This church outside the walls was born as the parish church of Santiago, and an image of the saint as a pilgrim carved in rock can be seen on its façade, nowadays it is known as the church of Cristo de las Batallas (Christ of the Battles) as this image is the one worshipped inside. It was before this image that the troops from Pláceres, when called by the King to fight against the Moors, knelt, swore to do their duty and placed themselves under its protection.

It is canonically dependent on the parish church of San Pedro and was created outside the walls so that pilgrims who reached the city once the gates were closed could pray there before continuing on their way or in case they did not wish to enter the city. Next to it, different hospitals and convents were built, such as that of San Roque.

The ground plan of the church of Cristo de las Batallas is rectangular, with a very pronounced Romanesque apse, covered with a brick vault. It has three naves, which were built in the 16th century by the bishop D. Gutierrez de Vargas y Cargas. Gutierrez de Vargas y Carvajal, whose coat of arms can be seen as a decorative element in between two of the arches that separate the naves, alternating with others that have the crosses of the Military Orders, especially Santiago.

Different heraldic coats of arms with Xacobean motifs stand out in the interior, although not all of them bear the cross of Santiago, but we can see the pilgrim’s shells joined with the crosses of the military orders of Alcántara or Calatrava.

Conference Centre

The Plasencia Conference Centre, designed by architects José Selgas and Lucía Cano, is the hallmark of modernity in the city of Jerte. It is structured around a 700-seat auditorium surrounded by numerous rooms for multiple uses.

The building is set in the Berroqueño landscape of the dehesa placentina. Situated on the border between the countryside and the city, it rests lightly on the landscape, occupying a minimum of its almost rural plot. The building is accessed from the neighbouring street, raised more than 17 metres above the lowest part of the building. From here, an orange-coloured walkway – which presents spectacular views of the surrounding landscape – leads visitors through a large doorway into the entrance hall.

Many have nicknamed it “the ship”, because of the polyurethane cover that envelops it and lights up at night, attracting all eyes. Throughout the year it hosts different events and fairs, some of them periodically, such as the Gumyparty dedicated to the world of manga, coldsplay and video games.