— — a frontier town that kept its walls.
“Western Spain, where the Guadiana river bends north toward Portugal. A city of warm sandstone and Moorish brick, the Alcazaba up on a low hill, the old town climbing toward it through narrow streets. Hot, slow summers; long evenings on the Plaza Alta after the heat lifts. The light is the colour of dry grass.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Badajoz is the capital of the province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, in western Spain. It sits on the left bank of the Guadiana river, about four miles from the Portuguese border, and is the largest city in Extremadura with roughly 150,000 inhabitants. The city stands at about 184 metres elevation on a plain broken by low hills. Founded as the Moorish settlement of Batalyaws in 875, it has been a frontier city through Visigothic, Moorish, Christian, and Napoleonic periods, and remains the principal cultural and commercial centre of the region.
The Alcazaba of Badajoz, raised above the old town on a low hill called the Cerro de la Muela, is one of the largest surviving Moorish fortresses in Spain. Built principally in the 12th century under the Almohads, its walls enclose roughly eight hectares and incorporate the octagonal Espantaperros tower. Within and below the walls run the streets of the medieval Casco Antiguo, including the arcaded Plaza Alta, painted in red and white. The 13th-century cathedral of San Juan Bautista anchors the lower town.
Badajoz lies on the A-5 motorway from Madrid to Lisbon, about 250 miles southwest of Madrid and 120 miles east of Lisbon. The Alcazaba grounds and the Plaza Alta are open to walk through freely; the Museo Arqueológico Provincial, housed inside the Alcazaba, is open Tuesday through Sunday and admission is free. Carnival, held the week before Lent each February or March, is the city's largest festival and one of the largest in Spain, with parades through the old town and the riverside promenade.