Discover Barcarrota: Culture, Nature and Holiday Rentals

Barcarrota preserves an unusual literary treasure: the Biblioteca Municipal Pública Francisco de Peñaranda displays reproductions of the Biblioteca de Barcarrota collection, which was discovered bricked up in 1992. The collection consists of ten printed books and a manuscript dating from 1525 to 1554. It also includes the only surviving edition of Lazarillo de Tormes from Medina del Campo, dating from 1554.

Discover other places through their town pages: La Garrovilla, Siruela, Llerena, Fuente De Cantos, Granja de Torrehermosa, Navalvillar De Pela, Talarrubias and Burguillos.

Culture and History

The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Soterraño is a Gothic church with a single-nave interior. Its artistic highlights include a Baroque high altar, a Gothic Christ figure and paintings by Morales and Covarsí. The Iglesia Mayor de Santiago Apóstol was built in the 13th century in the transitional Romanesque style and has three naves.

Barcarrota Castle, also known as Castillo de las Siete Torres, has a heptagonal enclosure with prismatic towers at the corners and a taller keep. The Plaza de Toros de Barcarrota stands on the former parade ground of the Castle of the Seven Towers and is considered one of the oldest bullrings in Extremadura. The Ermita de la Soledad is also part of the town's historic architecture: it is a 17th-century chapel with a rectangular floor plan, a single-nave interior divided into two sections and a camarín.

The main streets of Barcarrota's former Jewish quarter retain a medieval layout and medieval buildings; the arches of the former entrance gates are also still visible. A memorial cross stands in the Plaza del Altozano and is associated with a local legend about two lovers. The Plaza de España is also home to a monument funded by a public collection, the first erected in Spain for a conquistador.

The Casa-museo de Hernando de Soto reconstructs the De Soto family's presumed 16th-century home and displays several depictions of Hernando de Soto, as well as gifts from Bradenton. The Acts in honour of Hernando de Soto take place every two years; the Caballeros de Bradenton take part wearing clothing modelled on that of 16th-century Spanish conquistadors.

The historical and artistic night tour “Siglos de Silencio” was announced for its twelfth edition. During the edition of “Siglos de Silencio”, the historic centre of Barcarrota was transformed through theatre and music into a 16th-century setting.

Nature

Near Barcarrota, one of the last and most clearly defined surviving examples of Mediterranean woodland has been preserved. This landscape includes strawberry trees, heather, rockroses, holm oaks and cork oaks. The Río Alcarrache is protected as an ecological and biodiversity corridor; its 59-kilometre course also passes through the municipality of Barcarrota.

The Río Alcarrache corridor provides a habitat for black storks, which forage along the river and breed on rocky cliffs and in large cork oaks in the dehesa. The Centro de Interpretación Agua–Aire presents exhibits about the fish fauna of the Alcarrache and the dehesa ecosystem. It also explains the importance and quality of the natural areas around Barcarrota to visitors. By prior arrangement, visitors can take part in environmental education routes, workshops and games.

Megalithic Heritage

The megalithic group of Barcarrota comprises eleven dolmens and one Neolithic menhir, dating from between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The El Milano dolmen is considered the largest and most important monument in the megalithic group of Barcarrota; seven orthostats of the burial chamber survive, while the upper capstone is broken and has fallen down. Four routes to the megalithic sites around Barcarrota have been established for the Ruta Megalítica.

The different themes and formats can be deliberately considered alongside one another when planning your visit if you wish to compare cultural, natural-history and prehistoric highlights.

Festivals, Crafts and Cuisine

Barcarrota's Semana Santa includes a nighttime Stations of the Cross on Tuesday evening, staged in the historic centre in the style of the 17th century. On Good Friday, the “Sermón de Pregones y la Buena Mujer” takes place in the Plaza de España, featuring the singing of fourteen Mozarabic coplas. The Marochos are a popular festival in Barcarrota, celebrated on St John's Eve.

The gastronomic festival centred on Iberian pork includes live cooking, ham-carving demonstrations, gastronomic competitions, tastings and accompanying food and drink pairings. Barcarrota's traditional cuisine combines Iberian pork products with stews attributed to Arab and Jewish culinary traditions.

Craft traditions still practised in Barcarrota include cuerda seca pottery, the artisanal production of riding boots and saddles, as well as blacksmithing and hand-forged work.

To the main travel overview: Badajoz.