Ruta de la Plata

Origins

The area of Zafra has been settled since ancient times, all the way back to prehistory: the mountain range of El Castellar guards the original settlement in hollows decorated with pictographs. The nearby chapel of Belén (Bethlehem), the existence of a Bronze Age hillfort, the town limits and the possible settlement of several Roman villae, which may bring reminiscences of the legendary Segeda, are guidelines that mark the towns immediate antecedents.

But Arabic references are conspicuous when referring to the etymology of the place names of the vicinity; recognising Zafra as Sajra (rock or place that stands on rocks), a lookout centre from the 11th century onwards in the numerous clashes between the Kingdom or Taifa of Badajoz and the Emirate of Cordoba. Set on the sandstone peak of the Sierra del Castellar (663 m.) commanding the Guadajira Valley, it is the appropriate spot for an urban settlement (hamlet); and for a wheat trade (that incorprated other materials over time) that was located in the plazas Grande y Chico (Large and Small market squares), the origin of the guild-oriented layout of the town from the Middle Ages onwards.

The first reliable news we have of Zafra is, however from the Middle Ages: a small community of Moslems appeared in a settlement in the valley, when in the year 1241 the troops of Fernando III el Santo, in his reconquesting advance towards Seville, took the castle of El Castellar, which protected said community from its crest top. The year of 1394 proved to be a truly important historical milestone for the town, which was bequeathed at that moment in time by Enrique III to Gomes Suárez de Figueroa, an adolescent who waited on the Queen and was the son of the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago.

Middle Ages.

After several, initial attempts, the Suárez de Figueroa family decided to convert Zafra into the centre of all their domains (the so-called Señorio de Feria), which had grown progressively in the last years of the 14th century and during the following. In 1460, the Suárez de Figueroa family obtained the title of Counts of Feria and had also managed to give the town a certain monumental air, having erected large buildings destined for their residence (the Alcázar or Fortress) and a pantheon for their line of descent (Monastery of the Clarisas de Santa Maria del Valle).

This building activity took a new turn in the last years of the 16th century and the first years of the 17th century. It was then that the town would see, among other changes, the reconversion of the old Alcázar of the Counts into a palace in accordance with the new tastes of the court of the Austrias, or the termination of a new, larger church that was elevated to the category of a Notable Collegiate, an institution under the patronage of the Feria family, with its own jurisdiction under the command of a mitred Abbot.

In this new urban approach, the rise of the House to the title of Dukes and Grandees of Spain in 1567 was to be determinant. This was a result of the contribution of the fifth count, Gomes III Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, to the policy of State developed by Felipe II.

One aspect of the historical personality of Zafra, which we cannot fail to mention, due to its permanence in the present, is the towns industrial and commercial character as the centre of a mainly livestock-farming district. We may find the origins of this distinguishing feature in the Jewish and Moorish communities, who had settled in the town from remote times and who were protected by the first Señores de Feria, and which was not lost after their expulsion.

Trade found its site in the Plaza Chica, the old souk, whose symbolism is represented in the Vara de Medir (measuring stick), a commercial vestige hewn in stone, representing 83 cm. in the metric system, divided into thirds and quarters of a vara, where the traders measured their cloths under the attentive eye of the almotacén or official in charge of weights and measures.
And, of course, also under the arches of the Plaza Grande, a space formed after the demolition of the medieval church in the second half of the 16th century.

Fairs and Markets

The fairs and markets that were celebrated in honour of San Juan, from 1395 on, and in honour of San Miguel, from 1453 on, were fundamental for the development of local trade. The continued maintenance of trade has seen its recompense in contemporary times with the granting of the titles of City in 1882, of Regional Fair of the Countryside of Extremadura in 1966 and of International Livestock Fair in 1992.