The Vía de la Plata

A 24-hour truck stop at the interchange between the A-66 and N-630, named for the small river here. The Iglesia de San Isidro, visible from the road, has an unusual modern design that catches the eye.

Monesterio is the capital of jamon iberico on the Via de la Plata. The town celebrates its signature product with the Dia del Jamon festival and a genuinely informative free museum in the town hall — the Museo del Jamon. Visit it for the full story of how iberico pigs are raised on acorns in the surrounding dehesa, how the hams are cured, and where to find the best tasting spots in town.

Beyond the jamon, there's not much to linger for. Services are adequate. The road beyond is another long waterless stretch — carry extra.

Fuente de Cantos is best known as the birthplace of Francisco de Zurbaran, the 17th-century painter whose stark, shadow-drenched canvases of monks and saints hang in the Prado and in collections worldwide. The Casa Museo de Zurbaran occupies a restored house near the main square — small but worthwhile if it's open.

The Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Granada, directly on the camino, is a fine Baroque church with a cool interior that makes a practical rest stop in summer.

The town is a knot of narrow streets with more arrows than clarity — follow whichever set you find and they'll eventually exit the north side.

A tiny village on a long flat stretch between Fuente de Cantos and Zafra. A bar and basic supplies. The Iglesia de El Salvador has a Mudejar tower worth a glance.

A small town dominated by the ruins of a hilltop castle visible from the approach. The Iglesia de Santa Lucia sits in the Plaza de Espana. A bar and basic services.

Zafra earned the nickname "Sevilla la Chica" (Little Sevilla) for its architecture and mercantile history. The old town is compact and handsome, centered on two linked plazas — the Plaza Grande and the Plaza Chica — both lined with arcades and outdoor tables perfect for a late-afternoon tinto de verano.

The Convento de Santa Clara houses the Museo Santa Clara, a donativo museum with a remarkable collection of medieval art and artifacts accumulated since the convent's founding in 1428. Among the highlights: a polychrome alabaster head of Saint John the Baptist from the 15th-century Nottingham school.

The Alcazar de los Duques de Feria, now the Parador, is a 15th-century castle with a striking marble courtyard. You can't miss it — it dominates the southern edge of the old town.

The Albergue Van Gogh, run by volunteers who promote the Via de la Plata, has a rooftop terrace ideal for winding down the evening. All services available.

A mid-sized town with all basic services. The Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, on the main square, has a notable 16th-century retablo. The town's name dates to a 13th-century Reconquista grant. The next water source is 15 km away — stock up.

Villafranca de los Barros is a large agricultural town with all services, including four albergues for pilgrims — unusual abundance for the Plata. The Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Valle, a 15th-century Gothic-Mudejar church, anchors the main square.

The stretch between Villafranca and Torremejia includes a long straight gravel section that follows the original Roman road — one of the best-preserved sections of the calzada on the entire route.

The stage between Villafranca de los Barros and Torremejía 26.5km can be shortened by making a detour to the nearby city of Almendralejo. This alternate route turns left off of the camino along the long straight section of the former Roman road.

Most services are located on the N-630, which runs parallel to the camino two streets to the west (your left).

The Puente Romano (Roman bridge) over the Río Guadiana carried cars as recently as the early 90’s before being retired to pedestrian use only. It remains the longest surviving ancient bridge and from the entrance, at the park, it is over 400m to the other side.

Merida was the capital of Lusitania — Rome's most important city in western Iberia — and the Romans left more here than anywhere else in Spain. The entire archaeological ensemble is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you need at least half a day to see it properly.

To see most of what Merida has to offer, step off the camino after it crosses the Puente Romano. Immediately after the bridge, looming on your right, is the Alcazaba — a 9th-century Islamic fortress built with reused Roman and Visigothic stone (paid). Continue up Calle Cava to the far end and turn left to find the Co-Catedral Metropolitana de Santa Maria la Mayor, unassuming from the outside.

From there, head up Calle Romero Leal to the Templo de Diana (free) — the best-preserved Roman temple in Spain, its survival owed to being incorporated into a Renaissance palace. The Portico del Foro Municipal is 100 m further.

Keep going until you reach Calle Jose Melida and turn right toward the spectacular Teatro Romano and Anfiteatro. The theatre was built in 16-15 BC, promoted by Agrippa. It seats 6,000 and is still in active use — the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clasico de Merida has been running since 1933, with Greek and Roman plays performed under the stars every July and August. The amphitheatre next door held 15,000 for gladiatorial games.

Directly opposite the entrance is the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, designed by Rafael Moneo. The building itself would be worth the visit even without the collection.

The Acueducto de Los Milagros is the last major site, on the camino as it leaves the city heading north. All services available.

The Acueducto de Los Milagros is the last major Roman site on the camino's way out of Merida, and it earns its name. The locals called it the "Aqueduct of Miracles" because they couldn't believe the thing was still standing centuries after Rome fell. Built in the 1st century AD, it once carried water from the Embalse de Proserpina 5 km to the north. What remains is a stretch of 38 pillars rising 25 m high over roughly 830 m, built in alternating bands of granite ashlar and red brick -- a construction technique called opus mixtum that gives the ruins their distinctive striped appearance. Together with the dam, the bridge, and the rest of Merida's Roman infrastructure, it's part of the UNESCO Archaeological Ensemble.

Proserpina is a small settlement spread along the road north of Merida, named for the nearby reservoir. Most of the village sits to the east of the camino, but a few restaurants and bars line the road before and after the embalse. Don't expect much in the way of services -- this is a place to pause and take in what the Romans left behind, not to stock up. If you're planning to push through to Aljucen or beyond, fill your water bottles here.

The Embalse de Proserpina is one of the oldest functioning dams in the world. Built by the Romans in the 1st or 2nd century AD to supply water to Emerita Augusta via the Acueducto de Los Milagros, the dam stretches 440 m across and rises about 21 m, impounding a reservoir of roughly 5 million cubic metres. It still holds water today, though the aqueduct it once fed has long since fallen into ruin.

The dam itself is a wall of granite ashlar with a massive earth embankment behind it -- a Roman engineering approach that has proved remarkably durable. In summer the reservoir doubles as a popular swimming spot for locals from Merida. The name Proserpina comes from an 18th-century discovery: a tombstone found nearby invoking the goddess Ataecina-Proserpina, a local deity the Romans adopted.

The whole ensemble -- dam, reservoir, and the aqueduct ruins back in Merida -- is part of the UNESCO Archaeological Ensemble of Merida.

El Carrascalejo takes its name from the carrascas (holm oaks) that surround it, and that tells you most of what you need to know -- it's a tiny village in the dehesa. The bar adjacent to the Iglesia de la Consolacion maintains irregular hours, so don't count on it. There's a municipal albergue at the edge of the village. By the church you'll find a cruceiro built on what's said to be a Roman altar, a small reminder that this path has been walked for two thousand years.

The village sits between the Embalse de Proserpina (7.4 km back) and Aljucen (2.6 km ahead), making it a brief stop rather than a destination.

Aljucen is a small village that dates to the Al-Andalus period and has served travelers on this road for centuries. There's a shop, but the opening hours (10:00-14:00) make it impractical unless you time it right. Both bars do food, and they're your most reliable option.

The real draw here is the Termas Aqua Libera, a reconstructed Roman bathhouse that offers pilgrims discounted entry. The baths have four spaces with three pools at different temperatures and a tepidarium between them for conversation and rest. If you're a pilgrim, they'll lend you a towel and bathing suit. After days of walking through the Extremaduran heat, soaking in waters that echo what the Romans built here is a fine way to spend an afternoon.

Alcuescar is a modest Extremaduran town with enough services to make it a practical stop -- bars, small shops, a pharmacy, and an albergue. There are no arrows in town since the camino enters along the road and leaves at the Casa de Beneficencia, so navigating the streets is a matter of common sense rather than waymarks.

The real reason to linger is the Basilica de Santa Lucia del Trampal, located 6 km south of town along a quiet road. This Visigothic church from the second half of the 7th century is the only one of its kind still standing in southern Iberia. It was lost for centuries, buried under vegetation, and only rediscovered in 1981. The floor plan is shaped like the Greek letter tau, with three independent chapels opening onto a transept through horseshoe arches. Original stone vaults survive, along with three domes supported by transversal horseshoe arches -- architectural features that wouldn't appear again until the Asturian pre-Romanesque period. The builders reused Roman and pre-Roman materials, which you'll spot in the walls. The site has an astronomical orientation that researchers are still studying. Admission is free, closed Mondays, and there's a small exhibition explaining what archaeologists found.

If you didn't detour to the Basilica on the walk in from Aljucen, consider the 6 km round trip from Alcuescar. It's one of the most significant archaeological sites on the entire Via de la Plata.

The camino completely bypasses Casas de Don Antonio, so you'll need to step off the marked trail to reach the village. There's a small bar and shop in the local social centre -- minimal services, but enough for a cold drink and a rest. The village itself is quiet and depopulating, like so many along this stretch of Extremadura. If you don't need to stop, you won't miss much by pressing on.

Aldea del Cano sits 500 m off the camino and is easy to miss if you're not paying attention. The albergue is here -- ask for the key at the bar next door (Las Vegas). The village has a couple of bars and a small shop, enough to refuel before the walk to Valdesalor and on to Caceres. It's a quiet, functional stop.

Valdesalor is the last stop before Caceres, and it's a small one. The albergue is one of the first buildings in town; instructions for getting the key are posted on the door -- typically available at the ayuntamiento or the Hogar del Pensionista. A couple of bars and a small shop cover the basics. Early morning coffee is available at the Repsol gas station when leaving town, which is useful since the bars may not be open at pilgrim hours.

From here it's roughly 12 km to the centre of Caceres, an easy half-day that makes Valdesalor a good option if you want to arrive in the city with energy to spare for sightseeing.

Caceres deserves your time. The old town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 for its extraordinary blend of Roman, Moorish, Gothic, Renaissance, and Plateresque architecture, and it's considered the third best-preserved medieval centre in Europe after Prague and Tallinn. Go slow through it.

The camino enters through the Arco del Cristo, a 1st-century Roman gate and one of the few surviving openings in the original wall. Just uphill from the gate is the Casa/Museo Arabe, which offers a glimpse of domestic life for a wealthy Muslim family in the 12th century.

The first plaza you reach is the Plaza de San Jorge. The baroque church on the opposite end is the Iglesia de San Francisco Javier, commonly called the Iglesia de la Preciosa Sangre (Precious Blood), built by the Jesuits in the 18th century. Its tower can be climbed for commanding views over the rooftops.

From the Plaza de San Jorge the camino veers right, passing through a series of interconnected plazas to reach the Concatedral de Santa Maria. Built between the 15th and 16th centuries, it shares cathedral status with the one in Coria. If you don't make it inside, at least rub the toes of the bronze statue outside -- they belong to San Pedro de Alcantara, and their shine is a testament to the local belief that rubbing them brings good fortune in love.

The Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo sits nearby, a 15th-century Gothic fortress-palace where the Catholic Monarchs stayed when visiting the city. It functioned as the Golfin family's private residence for 500 years before reopening as a museum in 2015.

At this point, the Plaza Mayor is due west -- take the road to your left and through the archway. The plaza is lined with restaurants and overlooked by several medieval towers, the most prominent being the 12th-century Torre del Bujaco, a 25 m Arab-built watchtower on reused Roman ashlars that has become the city's symbol. Around 30 towers from the Islamic period still stand within the walls.

The camino follows a different path from the Concatedral, to the right, making a wide loop around the old town to pass the Iglesia de Santiago de los Caballeros, a 14th-century church built over an earlier 12th-century structure. The walled old town is encircled by 1,174 m of 12th-century Almohad walls -- compact enough to see in an afternoon, dense enough to reward a full day.

All services: hotels, pensions, restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacy, ATM, hospital. Book ahead in summer.

Casar de Caceres is a proper town with plenty of food choices along the camino and opportunities for shopping. The local swimming pool is a welcome way to cool down in summer. But the real reason Casar is on the map -- and on every menu in Extremadura -- is the Torta del Casar.

This is one of Spain's great cheeses. Made exclusively from the milk of Merino and Entrefina sheep and curdled with wild cardoon thistle rather than animal rennet, the Torta del Casar has a creamy, almost liquid interior with a distinctive slightly bitter edge. It takes the milk of 20 sheep to make a single kilogram. The cheese holds Protected Designation of Origin status, and today only eight families still produce it. The traditional method is to cut the top off like a lid and scoop out the interior with bread. The Museo del Queso is small and has a bit of charm, though it leaves a bit to be desired after the jamon museum in Monesterio.

The Rio Almonte crossing marks the end of a long, waterless stretch from Casar de Caceres. There is a municipal albergue down the road -- a wonderful new building with an excellent view over the reservoir -- but it has a history of problems related to its construction which make it hard to predict if it will be open for the season. It's included here for the sake of completeness, but check ahead before counting on it.

The bridge itself is substantial, and the reservoir below feeds into the Embalse de Alcantara. This is wild, remote country -- dehesa as far as you can see, with black Iberian pigs and the occasional eagle overhead. The landscape between here and Canaveral is some of the emptiest on the entire Via de la Plata.

The albergue in Alcántara is closed, making this detour less common.

Note that the albergue here is closed indefinitely and that a private Hostel exists.

Canaveral is a welcome sight after the remote crossing from Casar de Caceres. The town grew up around the Canada Real Soriana, a transhumance route for cattle and salt trade, and has served travelers on this north-south corridor for centuries. Basic services are here: a hostel, bars, small shops, an ATM, and a pharmacy.

The village sits within the buffer zone of Monfrague National Park, one of Spain's premier bird-watching sites. Imperial eagles, black storks, and black vultures are regular sightings in the surrounding dehesa. If you have binoculars, this is the stretch to use them. Monfrague itself is a detour off the camino, but the birdlife doesn't respect park boundaries -- keep your eyes on the sky.

Located off the camino, 700m to get there.

Located off the camino. 700m to get there. Upon returning to the camino, you will still have an opportunity to take another optional detour via Riolobos.

Galisteo is worth slowing down for. The town walls are among the best preserved in Extremadura — you can walk atop them, though the path is narrow and uneven enough to give anyone with wobbly legs or a fear of heights second thoughts. The walls incorporate decorative bands of river stones arranged in herringbone patterns, a distinctive local construction technique.

Inside the walls you'll find a few shops, a bank, and the Iglesia de la Asuncion near the eastern gate — an oddity for not being oriented to the east. A small bar and the albergue round out the services.

Carcaboso is a tangle of narrow streets that can be confusing to navigate. Head left along the main road from where the camino arrives for most services. The real point of interest is at the Iglesia de Santiago, where three Roman milarios (milestones) stand — from the emperors Trajan and his adopted son Hadrian, both of whom invested heavily in the roads that became the Via de la Plata.

Trajan in particular is remembered as one of Rome's great builders of public infrastructure. The milestones are a tangible reminder that the path under your feet has been a road for two thousand years.

Identifiable only as a road crossing with a few buildings. The road to your right leads to Oliva de Plasencia. Continue straight to follow the trail to Cáparra.

Off the camino but a handy way to break up the stage. You can return to the camino at Cáparra for a visit.

Caparra is one of the most important archaeological sites on the Via de la Plata, and its centrepiece -- a four-sided Roman arch standing alone in the dehesa -- is unlike anything else you'll see on any Camino.

The city was founded as Capera by the Vetones, a pre-Roman Celtic people, before being absorbed into the province of Lusitania. Its location at a crossroads on the Via de la Plata made it strategically vital: few Roman urban centres existed in this part of Hispania, and Caparra grew to include an amphitheatre, a reservoir, and the private houses (domus) of a prosperous merchant class. The Roman road ran directly through the centre of town, and it's that intersection the famous arch commemorates.

The Arco de Caparra is a tetrapylon -- a four-sided, four-gated arch -- and it's the only surviving example of this type on the Iberian Peninsula. Built at the end of the 1st century AD, it originally stood around 13 m tall, marking the crossing point of the city's two main roads. You can walk through it from any direction, which is the whole point of a quadrifrons design. The arch has lost its upper decoration but the four massive pillars and their arches remain, and standing beneath it with the dehesa stretching away in every direction, you get a visceral sense of how important this place once was.

The site is now an open-air museum. A visitor centre and bathrooms are at the public entrance. The ruins of the forum, thermal baths, and residential blocks are partially excavated and labelled. Give yourself at least 30 minutes; an hour is better.

Aldeanueva del Camino sits at the southern edge of the Valle del Ambroz, a transition zone where the dry Extremaduran plains give way to the green mountains of the Sistema Central. The town has basic services — bars, a small shop, a pharmacy — and makes a practical stop before the climb to Banos de Montemayor.

From here it's possible to make a side trip (3 km) to Hervas, a hilltop town with a well-preserved Jewish quarter (juderia) that's one of the most attractive small towns in northern Extremadura.

Not a town but a large campground with a restaurant along the road. The side trip to Hervas (3 km) is worthwhile if you have the energy — a beautiful hilltop town with a well-preserved juderia.

Banos takes its name from the thermal waters that spring up here — the Romans knew them, and a 1st-century bathhouse was excavated beneath the current balneario. If you fancy a splurge, the thermal spa is the place. The mountains surrounding the town provide a temperate microclimate that the locals enjoy and that pilgrims must climb through.

From Banos the camino begins the ascent to the Puerto de Bejar along the original Roman road on the east side of town. Avoid the temptation of following the N-630 — the old calzada is the proper route, and the climb is steep but less than 3 km.