Extremadura Guide Eng 2016

Among these artistic works, many of them with a reli- gious meaning, like the case of the basilicas or baptisteries, many cut sculptures are conserved as well as numerous architectonical elements belonging to religious buildings and some from the capital of Mérida. There, you can admire them either in the Visi-gothic Art Museum of Mérida or in the Provincial Museums of Cáceres and Badajoz.

The presence of the Arabs in Extremadura, started a few months after Guadalete ´s battle in 711 and finished in 1248 when Montemolín, the last Muslim possession in Extremadura was conquered by troops of Christian reigns, will last more than 5 centuries. The Extremaduran lands, very close to the influential, political, religious, artistic life of the Emirate and Caliphate of Cordoba, would have important administrative centres in Badajoz, Mérida and other nucleus, among which Bada- joz stands out among the rest in XI century, which will become an important Taifa reign after the decline of Omeyas from Andalusia. The following arrival of Almohads and Almoravids will bring some changes and religious, artistic influences to these lands which border on Tajo and Guadiana rivers, thus leaving a valuable artistic legacy in numerous locali- ties of the Extremaduran region as well as the predecessors Omeyas did in the political power of the Muslim world in the peninsula. For centuries, the Muslim settlement in Extremadura left important folkloric–artistic examples dated back to that time in numerous localities. Some former military for- tifications or settlements, sometimes conserved without many changes and other times, transformed and appropri- ated by the nest dwellers. In this artistic-historical time there are numerous dis- coveries, magnificently on display in some Extremaduran Museums, specially in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Badajoz . The fact that the Extremaduran lands were in Arabs´ hands, over all in the southernmost part, caused a great curb for the European, artistic, cultural influences. There- fore, the Romanesque art would be late in these latitudes.

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Visigothic column found in Almendral

General Aspects

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Art and History

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