Peraleda de la Mata: Nature, Routes and Architectural History

Peraleda de la Mata offers several starting points for planning a trip: access via two roads, natural areas and protected-area designations, routes, and a local history marked by notable buildings. If you’re looking for a hotel in Peraleda de la Mata, first consider whether you’d like to focus your stay more on the landscape and trails or on historic sites.

Getting Here and the Landscape

Peraleda de la Mata is directly accessible via the A-5 motorway or the EX-118 road between Navalmoral de la Mata and Guadalupe. This gives you two specific road options to consider when planning your journey, without suggesting a particular travel time.

Paraje de Casasola is a natural area in Peraleda de la Mata. The town also lies within the protected LIC Cañada del Venero site and the ZEPA Embalse de Valdecañas Special Protection Area for Birds. To the south, the course of the Río Tajo offers impressive landscapes. Together, these provide several ways to experience nature: a named natural area, inclusion in two protected areas, and the river landscape to the south. When planning your trip, you can decide whether you’re most interested in a named natural area, protected areas or the landscape along the Tajo.

Routes and Getting Your Bearings

The Senda El Ángel is almost 13 kilometres long and connects Valdehúncar and Peraleda de la Mata through a landscape of dehesa pastureland and granite. The Camino de los Jerónimos passes through Peraleda de la Mata and the Campo Arañuelo region; it connects the Monastery of Yuste with the Monastery of Guadalupe. The routes offer different points of reference: the Senda is defined by its length, the two places it connects and the landscape, while the Camino is defined by its regional course and the link between the monasteries. This helps you assess the routes according to the details that matter for your trip, without treating them as equivalent.

Local History and Buildings

Peraleda de la Mata was founded towards the end of the Middle Ages and belonged to the Campana de la Mata. It was not until the 17th century that it was granted the status of a villa. Its founding and later elevation to villa status mark distinct stages in the town’s history and provide two points in time for understanding its past.

Work on the Iglesia de Santiago Apóstol began on 30 April 1535 and was completed in 1603. The church is Gothic-Renaissance in style; the Diocese of Plasencia gave it the nickname “mi pequeña catedral” (“my little cathedral”). Behind its Baroque main altar, it preserves a Renaissance altarpiece made using the Italian sgraffito technique. Different artistic periods are therefore brought together in a specific way: the altarpiece stands behind the Baroque main altar, adding Renaissance art to the church’s story.

The two hermitages also date from different periods: Ermita de San Vicente is from the 17th century, while Ermita del Cristo de la Humildad is from the 18th century. Together with the building history of the Iglesia de Santiago Apóstol, the town’s ecclesiastical architecture thus spans the 16th to the 18th century. Plaza de España adds another feature of the townscape: the square is lined with arcades. If you’d like to focus your stay more on local history and architecture, these different periods and building styles offer a range of specific themes to explore.

Discover more destinations: Bohonal De Ibor, Herguijuela, Villasbuenas de Gata, Jarilla, Cambrón, Grimaldo, Las Casiñas Altas, San Martín De Trevejo

For the broader travel guide: Cáceres.