El Club · Olivenza

The heritage tourism resource "Abono: the three churches of Olivenza" is a combo cultural visit focused on three historic temples of the town: Santa María del Castillo, Santa María Magdalena and the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, all in Olivenza, Badajoz, Extremadura, with coordinates 38.68559, -7.10090. This is a proposed heritage tour through the historic center, linked to the main religious monuments of the town. The three pieces are part of the outstanding Portuguese heritage of Olivenza. The available sources place the construction of these temples in the 16th century, the moment of greatest splendor of the town, and especially relate Santa María Magdalena to a Portuguese royal promotion at the beginning of that century. From the artistic point of view, the ensemble responds to the religious language of transition of the Renaissance in a border context with a strong Portuguese imprint, although the sources consulted do not detail here a unique stylistic ascription for each building. The church of Santa María del Castillo, the church of Santa María Magdalena and the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, three landmarks of the monumental itinerary of Olivenza, are included as heritage elements to be visited. The resource is understood within the history of Olivenza as a border enclave of long Spanish-Portuguese tradition, whose cultural uniqueness explains the concentration of historic temples in the urban center. The subscription allows you to visit these spaces in an orderly fashion and appreciate the religious and artistic evolution of the ancient Portuguese town, now part of the province of Badajoz.

Chapel lined with 18th century historical tiles in the Santa Casa de Misericordia.

The Medieval Citadel and Keep of Olivenza is a castle and fortified enclosure of medieval origin located in Olivenza (Badajoz), in the historic center of the town and very close to the border with Portugal. The complex is part of the defensive network that gave identity to the town and is linked to the late medieval military architecture of Portuguese roots. Its construction began in 1306, when King Dinis ordered the first wall to be built; the foundation stone was laid by Pero Lourenço do Rego and, from 1309, the Order of Avis definitively promoted the works. The Keep is contemporary to the fortress, from the 14th century, and an inscription on its arrow slits confirms that it was already advanced in 1332, in the time of Alfonso IV of Portugal. The whole responds to a medieval fortress with elements of transition and later reforms. Among its most outstanding features are the Torre del Homenaje, of great height, the interior fortress and the defensive organization of the walled enclosure. The sources describe a complex with powerful walls and several towers, conceived as a walled citadel within the fortified town itself. The tower received improvements in 1488, during the reign of Juan II, and today it is one of the main heritage landmarks of Olivenza. Its historical value lies in its being a testimony to the ancient military frontier architecture and the evolution of the town's medieval defensive system.

The Convent of San Juan de Dios de Olivenza is a historic convent in the town of Olivenza (Badajoz), located inside the bastion of the same name and at the coordinates provided. The current denomination coexists with that of the Convent of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, the original name of the building, so that in the patrimonial documentation it appears linked to both dedications. Its construction took place between 1556 and 1631, in the 16th and early 17th centuries, based on testamentary donations to found a convent of Poor Clare nuns. The episcopal license was granted in 1601 and the inauguration took place on July 6, 1631. Therefore, it is a work of transition between the final Renaissance and the first Baroque, with a historical evolution linked to the conventual architecture and the fortification of Olivenza. The building was later occupied by the religious hospitallers of San Juan de Dios and had military uses, as a hospital and barracks, which explains its strong integration in the defensive system of the town. It currently houses the Tourist Office and the Alqueva Visitor Reception Center, as well as interpretive and public use spaces. Among its documented heritage features are the square floor plan organized around a large central courtyard in the form of a cloister and the classicist doorway mentioned in tourist sources. Its interest lies both in its architectural value and in its historical role within the old stronghold of Olivenza.

The Embarcadero de Villarreal is a point of access and stay next to the Alqueva reservoir, in the Olivares district of Villarreal, on the Spanish bank of the Guadiana. The tourist information sheet of the Diputación de Badajoz defines it as a pier with a restaurant and viewpoint, as well as a base for nautical activities such as kayaking, pedal boats and canoeing. The site is located on the Spanish bank of the Guadiana River. From this place there is a wide view of the dammed water and the Portuguese shore, with Juromenha as a visual reference on the other side of the river. The interest of the enclave lies in its combination of river landscape, recreational use and border reading of the territory: it is a viewpoint linked to the river, but also to the transformation of the Guadiana into a large sheet of water by the Alqueva reservoir.[9 The location in the surroundings of Villarreal and its link with the passage to Portugal have made it a regular stop on routes through Olivenza and the international Guadiana. The presence of restaurant and pier makes the place function as an accessible viewpoint and activity point, rather than as an isolated watchtower. The visit is especially pleasant in good afternoon light and in the warmer months, when recreational use of the reservoir is more intense and the perspective over the water gains depth. There is no specific figure of protection in the sources consulted.

The Fuente de La Cuerna is a hydraulic heritage resource of Olivenza (Badajoz), identified as an old cistern or fountain-cistern linked to the traditional water supply of the municipality. In the local tourist documentation it also appears associated with an old washing place, which confirms its functional character within the historical network of fountains, wells and pipes of the town. It is part of the so-called Olivenza Water Route, a heritage itinerary that connects fountains, irrigation ditches, subway channels and springs preserved in the urban and periurban landscape. Its value lies more in popular engineering and in the memory of the communal use of water than in monumental architecture per se. The sources consulted do not give a precise date of construction or a defined architectural style, so it should be described cautiously as a work of traditional hydraulic heritage, probably of modern or contemporary historical chronology, without further documentary evidence. Its exact location, at coordinates 38.68889, -7.09815, places it in the patrimonial environment of Olivenza, a town with a strong historical and monumental heritage.

The Church of Santa María del Castillo is a parish church located within the grounds of the castle of Olivenza, in the town of Olivenza, province of Badajoz, Extremadura, at the coordinates indicated. The tourist and patrimonial documentation identifies it as a church, although in some files it also appears as a hermitage due to the generic use of the resource. Its origin goes back to a first Olivetan church of the 13th century, linked to the old medieval settlement of the castle. The current building was erected between 1584 and 1627 by André de Arenas, replacing the previous factory, and presents a late-renaissance architecture with a church-hall typology. The exterior features a tower-façade and an ashlar façade, while the interior is divided into three naves at the same height, with gray marble columns and Ionic capitals. The chevet preserves a baroque Eucharistic altarpiece, and in the chapel on the Gospel side stands out the famous Tree of Jesse, considered the largest preserved of this theme. Its historical and artistic interest is related to the evolution of the ancient medieval church into a great temple of modern times, integrated in the monumental complex of the castle of Olivenza. The presence of Baroque altarpieces and late Renaissance elements makes it one of the most important pieces of heritage in the historic center of Olivenza.

The Church of Santa María Magdalena is a Catholic temple in Olivenza (Badajoz), located in the homonymous square, and one of the main heritage landmarks of the town. Its location coincides with the historic center of Olivenza, at coordinates 38.68603, -7.10039. It was built in the first half of the 16th century and erected to serve as a temple for the residence of the bishops of Ceuta in Olivenza. Its architecture is ascribed to the Manueline Gothic style, typical of the Portuguese area, with later Renaissance additions to the main doorway. In the interior the torsas or twisted columns stand out, with a strong decorative effect, as well as a remarkable set of altarpieces. The tourist sources of the Diputación de Badajoz indicate six Baroque altarpieces of gilded carving and three of marble, located in the transition from Baroque to Neoclassical, in addition to abundant tilework historicized in several chapels. Due to its chronology, its link to the old bishopric of Ceuta and the quality of its decoration, the church is one of the most representative samples of the Portuguese artistic legacy preserved in Olivenza.

Its collection focuses on the traditional culture and trades of the area, with funds mainly from the González Santana ethnographic collection and, to a lesser extent, from the Margarita Navarrete archaeological collection. Among its pieces are domestic utensils, popular ceramics and recreated spaces such as a wine cellar, oil mill, shoe shop or barbershop, which document the daily life of Olivenza and its surroundings.

The Papercraft Museum is a unique museum dedicated to the papercraft technique, that is, to the construction of three-dimensional paper sculptures. It is located in Olivenza, Badajoz, in the Plaza de San Juan de Dios, on the second floor of the old Convent of San Juan de Dios. According to official and specialized tourist sources, it is the first museum of its kind in Spain and gathers more than 700 paper figures made by Guillermo Rebollo Mira from Olivenza. The collection includes representations of monuments, film and animation characters, and animals, which gives it a marked character of a museum of contemporary creation and paper arts. The resource does not correspond to a monumental historical building of its own, but to a museum space installed in a pre-existing convent building. Therefore, its heritage interest lies mainly in the originality of the collection and its integration in the former Convent of San Juan de Dios, one of the historic sites of the town of Olivenza. Its context is that of a recent cultural initiative, linked to contemporary artistic craftsmanship and the tourist promotion of Olivenza. The sources consulted place its opening and subsequent reorganization in recent times, although the exact date of foundation varies according to the available references.

The Municipal Palace of Olivenza is a stately house for institutional use, today the headquarters of the town hall, located in the historic center of this town in the province of Badajoz. It is part of the heritage of Olivenza, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest as a Historic-Artistic Site, in an urban environment with a strong Luso-Extremeña personality. The sources consulted do not unanimously specify its exact chronology or a closed architectural style for this building, so it should be cautiously described as a historic building representative of the local civil architecture. Its interest lies, above all, in its public function and its presence within the monumental fabric of Olivares, rather than in a religious or defensive typology. Olivenza belonged to Portugal for centuries, a circumstance that marked its urban and patrimonial evolution. The Municipal Palace is part of this historical landscape built between medieval and modern times, in which fortified remains, civil architecture and religious buildings coexist. Due to its location in the main square or civic space, it acts as a key piece of the institutional memory of the town.

Piedra Furada is a natural site in the municipality of Olivenza, in the province of Badajoz, located in the foothills of the Sierra de Alor and within the scope of the Natura 2000 Network, in the Sierra de Alor and Monte Longo SCI. The technical documentation of the Junta de Extremadura also lists it as a Site of Scientific Interest, with a protected area of 5.94 hectares, making it a small enclave but of notable environmental and botanical value. The interest of the site lies in its context of pasture and basophilic Mediterranean scrubland, with typical holm oak vegetation and a very rich herbaceous stratum. The sources highlight an important community of wild orchids, including several species of special interest in Extremadura, such as Barlia robertiana, Orchis italica, Orchis conica, Serapias lingua or Ophrys speculum. This group of plants makes the site particularly sensitive to soil alteration and land clearing. For the visitor, Piedra Furada is of interest for its transitional landscape between the Sierra de Alor and the Olivetan countryside, with quiet environments of high natural value in a reduced space. The sources consulted do not indicate that it is a great geological formation, but a biological enclave protected by the quality of its plant communities and its role as a refuge for Mediterranean flora and orchids. Its relevance is, above all, conservation: protection responds to the presence of vulnerable species and the need to avoid changes in land use. In the local informative bibliography it also appears as a natural resource of Olivenza, which reinforces its interest for nature itineraries in the region.

The Ajuda Bridge is a historic stone bridge over the Guadiana, between Olivenza and Elvas, built in the early sixteenth century by order of Manuel I of Portugal. The original work was about 350 meters long, with nineteen arches and a height of approximately 15 meters; it was partially destroyed in 1709 and today remains in ruins, with an interrupted layout that still lets you read its monumental scale. From the surroundings of the visit, the border character of the place can be clearly appreciated: the Guadiana riverbed, the alignment of the preserved arches and the relationship between the historic ruin and the nearby modern bridge. It is a point of landscape reading rather than a functional crossing, and its interest lies both in Renaissance engineering and in the memory of conflicts between Portugal and Spain. The bridge is listed in heritage directories and is covered by the generic protection of Spanish historical heritage and Spanish castles, as well as appearing in tourist and heritage guides of the Diputación de Badajoz and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadiana. The best visit is usually with side light, at dawn or dusk, when the stone takes volume and the riverbed better shows the structure of the whole.

The Puerta del Calvario is a monumental gate of the bastioned wall of Olivenza, in the province of Badajoz, and is the only preserved gate of the old defensive enclosure. Its location, in the surroundings of the Paseo Pizarro and next to the walled system, responds to the military function of controlling access to the town in a border context with Portugal. The sources consulted place it in the seventeenth century, within the modern military architecture linked to the Olivetan bastioned enclosure. It is part of a defensive complex with wall, moat and bastions, and recent interventions have documented the gallery of the gate, more than a hundred meters of wall and remains associated with the fortified environment. Typologically it is a tower-door or wall gate integrated in a bastioned fortification, not an isolated religious or civil building. Its heritage value lies in its role as a historical access to the city and in being the last visible testimony of the ancient gates of the defensive enclosure of Olivenza. The recent rehabilitation has made it possible to enhance the value of its constructive base and to recover the reading of the defensive system, reinforcing its interest as a singular element of Olivenza's historical heritage.

The Sierra de Alor is an alignment of gentle relief and modest altitude -its elevation is around 611 m- that stands out in the plain of the region of Olivenza. According to the Diputación de Badajoz, olive groves predominate in a large part, while in its southern sector there is a pasture landscape; this mixture of uses explains the transition between cultivated slopes and Mediterranean scrub. The area also stands out for its good state of conservation and for having been declared a Special Conservation Area. From the viewpoints and high points along the route, there are open views over the countryside and, on clear days, over the transition to the Portuguese Alentejo. The sierra is known for its botanical richness: aromatic herbs such as thyme, oregano or mint, and a highly appreciated peony bloom, called Rosa de Alexandria or Rosa albardeira, especially visible in April. The route usually includes elements of ethnographic and landscape interest, such as fountains, huts, interpretive panels and the shelter attributed to Diego Corrientes, mentioned in local hiking guides. The best time to visit is between March and May, when the forest is at its greenest and the peonies and other spring species are in bloom.