Excursions from Cáceres

Heading out west from Cáceres on the N-521, the road signs all point to the destination, Valencia de Alcántara. The route passes tracts of Mediterranean hearth and woodland, scattered strands of holm and cork oak that are so common in Extremadura, and occasionally a vulture casts its shadow from overhead while eyeing the fertile banks of the River Tagus just north of the road. Having arrived at the pueblo, a tour of the pre-historic dolmens is paramount. But first, a detour to Malpartida de Cáceres, 15 km (nine miles) outside of Cáceres, where the curious Museo Vostell Malpartida is situated amid the granite outcroppings of Los Barruecos, a protected natural area.

Malpartida de Cáceres & Los Barruecos

Sightseeing

Museo Vostell Malpartida is one of the more unusual museum experiences to be had in Spain. Outside the museum (actually the museum is both inside and outside) a Mig-21 fuselage stands over 100 feet high like a contemporary totem pole with old cars sandwiched at intervals all the way up. Another car is carved out of solid rock, blending in strangely with the granite boulders strewn all around the blue reservoir. Inside what was a former wool-washing complex transcendental acrylic paintings hang on walls, as do 20 motorcycles and other conceptual artworks, including half a human torso in polyester. Another car is surrounded by a wall of baguettes. The vanguard museum is the brain-child of the Spanish-German Wolf Vostell, a renowned contemporary artist of the post-war era who is credited with the technique known as dé-coll/age and who was an instigator of the video-art and Fluxus movements, the latter of which is characterized by nothing in particular except the whim of the artist. Upon discovering this strange natural landscape in the 1970s, Vostell declared it a “Work of Art of Nature.” He then set about the task of manipulating the space as a showcase for his own work and that of other artists who were not only pushing the boundaries of art but subverting them altogether.

Los Barruecos Park is comprised of a string of reservoirs tied together and banked by domos, large piles of granite boulders that have been smoothed into every imaginable geometrical shape by erosion. It is easy enough to follow the trails through them and, while they may look small from a distance, once you’re beneath them they are anything but. White storks have crowned many of the boulders with their nests and the endangered black stork utilizes the lakes during its summer migration route. In the winter, ducks crowd the waters and at night the green San Antonio frog can be heard croaking. In the spring the ground is colored with small white and yellow flowers, the laburnum and white escobas, as well as slips and flax, which in earlier times was manipulated to make linen yarn and linseed oil. The guards at the entrance to the park can pass on further information about trails and the area’s flora and fauna. To explore Los Barruecos after a visit to the museum adjoining it, Extremaruta, C.B.

Valencia de Alcántara

Valencia de Alcántara is off the beaten path, a small, simple village just a few kilometers inside the Portuguese border that sees more anthropologists and archeologists than tourists during any given year. Its modest Barrio Gótico, or Gothic neighborhood, appeals not because of any monumental tourist attractions, but because it can be enjoyed with only a handful of locals, some drifting casually around the dirt and cobblestone streets, others peeking out of windows curiously. There is not all that much to do except eat and, if you live here, try to work. Most of the humble buildings in the old quarter are whitewashed with sandstone accents; streets aren’t all that clean and one wouldn’t expect them to be, here in one of the poorest areas of Spain’s poorest region. The town is rural, some might even say backward, but the people are friendly, if a little suspicious at first, and as salt-of-the-earth as one will come across in Spain. It’s a simple chore to see the sights: nearby is a crumbling castle that can be traced to the Moors and not far away a Roman aqueduct. But it is for the prehistoric relics that one comes to this distant enclave.

Seeing the Dolmens

The stone-age dolmens, some cut out of granite, others out of slate, were left behind eons ago during the Neolithic period. To the untrained eye, most look something like a mushroom, though many of their ‘caps’ have fallen off over the thousands of years since they were built. Most are composed of five or six base stones, pitched vertically in the scrub, with an entrance and another large slab forming a roof. They served as burial chambers in which the deceased were interred, either alone or in groups, along with any significant personal or spiritual belongings. Though these strange creations can be found as far away as Japan, they are most prevalent in Europe. All told, there are 48 dolmens scattered around the village of Valencia de Alcántara.