Zafra

Zafra's centre turns on two adjoining arcaded squares, the Plaza Grande and the Plaza Chica, connected by an arch and both lined with whitewashed buildings on stone columns, an arrangement that with the town's white lanes and church towers earned it the nickname Sevilla la Chica. The Plaza Chica was the market and still carries a stone measuring rod set into a column, the vara, used to check cloth lengths. The castle, built in the fifteenth century for the Dukes of Feria, has round towers, a Renaissance marble courtyard attributed to Juan de Herrera and a hall with a gilded coffered ceiling; it operates as a parador. Zafra holds a large livestock fair each October dating from the fifteenth century, and it was the home town of Ruy Lopez, author of one of the first European treatises on chess.

The main sights

• The two squares - Plaza Grande and Plaza Chica joined by an arch.
• The measuring rod - a stone vara set into a column in the market square.
• The ducal castle - a fifteenth-century fortress now a parador.
• The October fair - a livestock fair running since the fifteenth century.

When to go

March to May and October to November; the October fair is the town's biggest event and fills it. Extremadura summers are extreme, with temperatures above forty degrees common.

What to expect

The castle is a working hotel, so access to the interior is limited to guests and the public areas. The town is small and seen in half a day. Services outside fair weeks are modest.

Nearby

Jerez de los Caballeros and Llerena lie south and east; Badajoz and Merida are north.

Key facts