5 Best Sights in Plasencia, Extremadura

This striking Renaissance palace, built by the wealthy Paniagua family in the 17th century, isn't open to the public, but it's worth a drive-by to see the outside. The ornate corner balcony, supported by neoclassical and Corinthian columns, is an excellent example of Spanish ironwork from that era.

Plasencia's cathedral was founded in 1189 and rebuilt after 1320 in an austere Gothic style. In 1498 the great architect Enrique Egas designed a new structure, intending to complement or even overshadow the original, but despite the later efforts of other notable architects of the time, such as Juan de Alava and Francisco de Colonia, his plans were never fully realized. The entrance to this incomplete, and not wholly satisfactory, addition is through a door on the cathedral's ornate but somber north facade. The dark interior of the new cathedral is notable for the beauty of its pilasters, which sprout like trees into the ribs of the vaulting. You enter the old cathedral through the Gothic cloister, which has four enormous lemon trees. Off the cloister stands the building's oldest surviving section, a 13th-century chapter house, now the chapel of San Pablo, a late-Romanesque structure with an idiosyncratic, Moorish-inspired dome. Inside are medieval hymnals and a 13th-century gilded wood sculpture of the Virgen del Perdón. The museum in the truncated nave of the old cathedral has ecclesiastical and archaeological antiques.

Walk southeast from the Plaza de San Vicente Ferrer to get to this park, home to peacocks, cranes, swans, and pheasants. Full of waterfalls and animals, this is a great spot for children.

In this orange-tree-lined plaza you'll find the 15th-century church of San Vicente Ferrer with an adjoining convent that's now the Parador de Plasencia.

East of the Plaza de San Vicente Ferrer, at the other end of the Rúa Zapatería, is this cheerful arcaded square. The mechanical figure clinging to the town-hall clock tower depicts the clockmaker and is called the Mayorga in honor of his Castilian hometown. Also east of the Plaza de San Vicente you can find a large section of the town's medieval wall beside a heavily restored Roman aqueduct.