Urdimbre residencial de una ciudad abaluartada transfronterizaValencia de Alcántara (Cáceres). Análisis gráfico y constructivo

Abstract

Valencia de Alcántara, a border walled city has been since ancient times, a meeting place for diverse cultures which have left a great legacy in the Extremaduran territory. Together with unique examples of undoubted beauty linked to monumental religious, military and civil architecture there can be found residential and domestic architecture, consisting of an essential part of human existence, especially remarkable in the town because it features one of the most important country houses within the popular architecture which got, on 18th March, 1997, the Statement of major cultural property under the category of historical site, known as the Gothic Area. Its strategic position in the Extremaduran border has turned this town into a highly demanded place. Undergoing continuous destructions in the battles between Spain and Portugal throughout the 17th and 18th centuries it has learned to get back on its feet stronger and enriched by the border influences. The graphic display of the urban fabric transformations of Valencia de Alcántara, from direct observation and by analysing its architecture, will allow to make an approach into the genetics of the residential scheme, origin of the medieval town and its evolution, analysing the complex architecture of the housing sites created as the people´s response to their closest surroundings, acknowledging the importance of monumental buildings as well as those connected to the trades as the backbone of growth and merge of a city.