OFFICIAL TOUR OF TRUJILLO WITH TICKETS TO MONUMENTS

Our official guided tour begins in the surprising Plaza Mayor of Trujillo, full of portals of artisans-merchants and enormous Renaissance Palaces, with loggias and typical corner balconies, some still belonging to the direct descendants of the noble lineages that inhabited them among the 15th and 16th centuries. Dukes or Marquises such as Pizarro, Vargas, Carvajal, Orellana, Chaves, etc., Guarded by the Church of San Martín de Tours, the "Casa del Concejo", the "Casa del Peso Real" or the "Casa de la Cadena", flanked by defensive towers and presided over by the famous equestrian statue of the Conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

The emblematic equestrian statue of Francisco Pizarro, a native of this city and conqueror of the Inca Empire, presides over the Plaza Mayor of Trujillo. It is forged in solid bronze and weighs about 6,500 kg. It was a gift to the city from its author, the American sculptor Charls Rumsey, in 1927 and was inaugurated two years later.

Palace of the Marquis of the Conquest, title granted by Emperor Charles V to Francisco Pizarro. Plateresque style, it was ordered to be built by him in his will and it was his heir daughter, the Inca princess Francisco Pizarro Yupanqui, along with her uncle and husband, Hernando Pizarro, who fulfilled this wish. Above the spectacular corner balcony, stands the immense shield of the Marquisate, carved in granite, which represents relevant aspects of the Conquest of the Inca Empire. On both sides of the balcony, the busts of Francisco Pizarro, his wife, his daughter and his brother Hernando stand out. A repeated series of the coat of arms of the surname Pizarro adorns the façade, represented by two bears, reaching for the pine cones, on a slate floor.

The Casas del Concejo or old Town Hall, located in the Plaza Mayor of Trujillo, was a multipurpose building composed of the Town Hall, the Notary Archive, the Chapel of Good Government and the Royal Prison, which was accessed through a vaulted passage called the "jail cannon" It was ordered to be built at the end of the 15th century by Isabella the Catholic and renovated in the time of Charles I. Due to this, the nobility that held political power began to build their palaces around it, configuring the Plaza Mayor. Currently, this building houses the Courts.

Palace of the Dukes of San Carlos, Renaissance style and four stories high, with a stylized porticoed gallery on the third floor, made up of three semicircular arches and Ionic columns. In the corner corner there is a corner balcony framed with two double-headed eagles, an imperial symbol, a privilege granted by Emperor Charles V, as well as the title of Dukes of San Carlos. The complex is completed by seven unique chimneys in the shape of towers and a spiral staircase with a pinnacle. It was built in the 16th century by the first "Correo Mayor de las Indias", Don Lorenzo Galíndez de Carvajal, whose private monopoly was inherited by the family, until in the 18th century this institution passed to the crown as a public service. Today it continues to belong to the direct descendants, current Dukes of San Carlos.

Also called the Palace of the Marquises of Piedras Albas, it has an original loggia with three segmental arches of Florentine influence, since the wife of the owner and mayor of the city was related to the Piccolomini family and Pope Pius II. The building ends with a Gothic cresting of great beauty, carved in granite.

The Church of San Martín de Tours already existed in the 14th century as a small hermitage and in the 16th century it was expanded to a great height, maintaining a single nave, by the Trujillo architect Sancho de Cabrera, in which other important stonemasons also collaborated. locals like Alonso and his son Francisco Becerra, architects of corner balconies, convents, churches and cathedrals. Its unique side doorway is from the 15th century, with a trefoiled arch in the Elizabethan Gothic style, while its main door is Renaissance. It houses a baroque altarpiece from the 17th century, a baroque organ from the 18th century, a large Romanesque wood carving from the 13th century of Nuestra Señora de la Coronada and a surprising Gothic wooden image of the "Christ of the Waters" in pain. , from the 14th century.

It was ordered to be built in the 16th century by Juan Pizarro de Orellana, cousin of the Conqueror, who also participated with him in the American feat. When he returned, he built this palace on an old military house with defensive towers, opening a beautiful loggia, a Renaissance balcony and a typical doorway characteristic of the Becerra architects. Inside, it contains a spectacular Plateresque cloistered patio. This palace became the Casa de Contratación, linked to that of Seville, where those who were going to embark for America could directly arrange their papers. Don Miguel de Cervantes also stayed here for a time when, upon being released from his prison in Algiers, he came to give his shackles to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

It is a strong house for military use, with defensive towers, built on the Arab wall, next to one of the seven entrance gates to the medieval town, flanked by the military tower of this house and by the bell tower of the Santiago church, from which the curfew was given at dusk. It hosted the Catholic Monarchs on several occasions, during the year 1477, to pacify the civil struggles between the nobles, and in the year 1479, during the War of Succession against the Beltraneja. When Juan II of Aragon died while Isabel and Ferdinand were staying here, they held his funeral in the Church of Santa María la Mayor in Trujillo, convening the Council that recognized Frenando as the new King of Aragon and Sicily, signing a document in which recognized the union of this crown to that of Castile and the new monarchs as Kings of Spain, what they call the "Tanto Monta". The peace of the War against Beltraneja and Portugal was also signed here

It is a Muslim Alcazaba, built between the 9th and 10th centuries, for purely military and defensive use, not residential, so it does not have rooms, but rather two walled outdoor spaces. The first, square in shape, as a parade ground, and the second, polygonal in shape, is the Albacar, to protect animals. In the first there is a cistern from the 10th century and a hermitage that houses the Patron Saint of the city, the Virgin of Victory. The riches of the Crown were kept here in the times of Peter I "the cruel", as it is one of the safest fortresses in the kingdom. And it also served as a refuge for Beltraneja until she had to hand her over to Isabel la Católica and flee to Plasencia, where she was able to marry her uncle, the king of Portugal, because in Trujillo, where the wedding was initially agreed upon, they did not succeed.

It was the most relevant religious building in the city, where the main lineages and the most illustrious Conquerors who forged its medieval past are buried. Among others, the tomb of Captain Diego García de Paredes stands out, to whom Miguel de Cervantes made him famous in “Don Quixote” as “Samson Extremadura” for his physical strength, and who was the subject of several legends. It was built in the 13th century, after the reconquest, in the late Romanesque style. From that time it preserves its apse and its Romanesque tower, which fell during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and was rebuilt in the 20th century by a stonemason from Trujillo, who finished it off by placing a shield of the Athletic Club of Bilbao on top of it. In the 16th century the temple was expanded and inside the artistic Plateresque choir and its main altarpiece stand out, the work of the Salamancan Gothic painter Fernando Gallego. The church witnessed the funeral for King John II of Aragon, and several years later, the funeral for his son Ferdinand the Catholic.

This cistern belonged to the attached Fort-House of Fernán Ruiz de Altamirano, which was probably a previous Muslim Alcázar. It is of Arab tracery, with three naves on main walls and arches supported by pilasters, covered with three half-barrel vaults. The materials used in its construction are granite blocks, masonry and mortar. It measures 10 m deep, 13 meters long and 12 meters wide. It is a large quadrangular space whose walls still preserve traces of redwood that the Arabs used in paint to seal and protect the surfaces and keep the water drinkable. It was walled up for several centuries, probably since some time of war, so that the enemy would not use it or poison it, until it was discovered again by chance in the 20th century.