Visit the town of Guadalupe and its famous Monastery

The Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Extremadura and her festivity is celebrated on September 8.

It is located in the Monastery of Guadalupe in the place where legend has it that an image of the Virgin that had been hidden in the year 714 to protect it from the Muslims was found by a shepherd from the town at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century..

If you are staying in Cáceres, we recommend this excursion to Guadalupe, which also includes a visit to Trujillo.

Visit the Guadalupe Monastery

The Guadalupe Monastery is a temple in which several architectural styles coexist.

Among them are the Gothic, Renaissance, Mudejar, Baroque and Neoclassical because the construction of the monastery lasted for 4 centuries.

The construction began in the 13th century in the place where the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe was located and several extensions were carried out in successive centuries.

The first thing you see when you arrive at the square where the Guadalupe Monastery is located is its imposing Mudejar-style façade with rectangular traces.

In it, its two pointed doors, its two towers (called Santa Ana and La Portería) and the rose window stand out.

Upon entering through the doors you will find the Chapel of Santa Ana with a baptismal font and beyond it the Temple-Basilica of Gothic-Mudejar style formed by three naves.

There, the Choir, the Baroque High Altarpiece, the Presbytery and the wrought iron grille that encloses the altarpiece stand out. From there you can access the Sacristy where 8 canvases by Zurbarán and its vault stand out.

At the end is the Treasure. Before accessing the Sacristy, you can climb some stairs to the Camarín where the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is located.

The Cloister and other places of interest of the Monastery of Guadalupe

Another of the important points of the Guadalupe Monastery is the Cloister, in Mudejar style and with a rectangular floor plan.

This is without a doubt the most beautiful place in the monastery and in the center there is a temple with a square exterior and a hexagonal interior with 4 pointed arches and a pyramidal dome.

In the Monastery there is also another lesser-known cloister in a less imposing Gothic style than the previous one.

The Guadalupe Monastery is also made up of a Hospedería that is also open to the public and several museums such as the Embroidery Museum, the Miniado Books Museum and the Sculpture and Painting Museum, where there are works by Goya, Zurbarán or El Greco, among others.

You can find more information on the official website of the Guadalupe Monastery.

What else to see in Guadeloupe

Although the monastery is the monument that presides over the town and the one that occupies the most attention, it is also possible to find more places to visit.

And it is that Guadalupe was declared a Historic-Artistic Site.

Among these places that you should not miss are the Colegio de Infantes, a former college of humanities and religious song that today is a Parador de Turismo.

Also the Church of the Holy Trinity of Baroque style and from the 18th century or the Old Jewish Quarter where you can find typical houses with wooden arcades and balconies flooded with flowers and that were built between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Nearby you can visit the Granja de Mirabel, a palace where the Catholic Monarchs rested when they visited the area, and the Ermita del Humilladero, where Miguel de Cervantes wore his chains after his captivity in Algiers as an offering to the Virgin of Guadalupe..

How to get to Guadeloupe

Guadalupe is off the main roads of Extremadura so getting to it can be difficult.

From the A-5 motorway that connects Madrid with Extremadura, take the EX-118 road at the height of Navalmoral de la Mata and after crossing the Comarca de los Ibores you get to the town of Guadalupe with a few last kilometers that are very beautiful. thanks to the scenery.

If you want to complete the visit, a few kilometers after driving along the EX-118 next to the Valdecañas reservoir, you can see the remains of the Temple of Augustóbriga, the only remaining vestige of this Roman town.