Most beautiful towns in Las Hurdes (Extremadura)

One of the great attractions of a getaway to Las Hurdes, a region north of the Cáceres province en Estremadura, is undoubtedly the possibility of see black slate architecture.

Those of us who reside in Madrid We have the opportunity to get closer to the area of ​​the Guadalajara province adjacent to the Sierra Norte Madrid, or nearby Sierra de Ayllon en Segovia, where you can see the best samples of the so-called black architecture.

This type rural architectureIt is characterized by the use of slate and stone, which happens in geographically isolated areas where this material is abundant and where the transfer of other construction materials is difficult.

This is undoubtedly a characteristic of the aforementioned area where you can see black architecture in Guadalajara, and so is the Las Hurdes region, which makes up the most beautiful towns in Las Hurdes.

Most beautiful towns with black architecture in Las Hurdes

In fact the image of the farmhouses (villages) with all the houses built with slate It is one of the most iconic images associated with The Hurdes.

What's more, the first image of a population of The Hurdes which appears in the controversial black and white documentary “Land without Bread"Of Luis Buñuel Its the olive, at that time a very small village configured as a compact group of slate houses of a plant.

Now you won't see it like that even in olive nor in any other town or farmhouse from Las Hurdes.

Indeed, the people of this historically isolated Extremaduran region They have grown architecturally in a disorderly manner, but this is one of the aspects of their authenticity from a tourist point of view.

Compared to the compact and very careful towns of black architecture what you can see in the Guadalajara province, riding a The Hurdes You find towns with very different architecture.

But in some of them small areas are preserved where they gather slate houses, most of them abandoned or only used as barns.

For now in a few corners of Las Hurdes Houses that combine stone and slate are beginning to be rebuilt, but there is beginning to be concern about promoting it.

Where to see slate houses in Las Hurdes

So, where you can see black architecture in Las Hurdes?

After what has been said, you should look for those corners with slate houses that are preserved in some farmhouses, and due to the orography of this region of Extremadura it is difficult to make a linear route.

A good way to get to the best corners is to do it in the company of companies that are starting to offer guided tours through Las Hurdes.

In our case we did a cultural route with Manuel Marcos, company promoter Hurdano Flavors.

What a traditional house in Las Hurdes is like

In this way we went to the farmhouse de The Gasco, where we were able to visit the Hurdan House Interpretation Centera.

It is a small two-story house, both very low, where you can see the great austerity of the traditional houses of Las Hurdes.

With two delimited areas, in one you can see the household utensils for daily life in the kitchen and bedroom, and the other is enabled for the shelter for animals and work tools.

The traditional construction of houses of Las Hurdes It was done without using mortar, simply stacking the slate in a compact way, which in current terms was a house bioclimatic.

In short, homes where it was not necessary to open a chimney, but rather the smoke came out through the cracks that were maintained in the construction.

On your walk through The Gasco you will also see corners with slate houses.

Other farmhouses where we could see these areas of black architecture are the aforementioned olive and already in the Ladrillar river valley, riding a Riomalo de Arriba.

And, likewise, we also find corners in Sauceda y Ovejuela.

In summary, The Hurdes maintains various samples of this traditional architectural heritage, with a gradual tendency to gradually recover it.