Plasencia

Plasencia stands beside the Jerte in northern Extremadura. Founded by King Alfonso VIII of Castile in 1186, it became a bishop's seat shortly afterwards and governed a substantial surrounding territory. Its council was reorganised under a royal privilege confirmed in 1346, with authority concentrated in a smaller group of officials. In 1442 King John II granted the city to the Zúñiga family, ending its direct royal status. It returned to the Crown in 1488, when Ferdinand pledged at the cathedral to uphold its laws and privileges. Noble families nevertheless continued to dominate municipal government. The sixteenth century brought population growth and extensive building: work continued on the new cathedral, the town hall was enlarged, and an aqueduct was built to supply the city. Later hardship, epidemic disease and emigration contributed to stagnation in the seventeenth century. Plasencia's civic and religious buildings preserve the imprint of a city whose institutions reached well beyond its walls.