The cradle of the Conquistadors — Francisco Pizarro's birthplace, where Extremadura villages funded the conquest of the Americas
Trujillo is a magnificent, half-empty medieval city in the Extremadura that produced an astonishing concentration of conquistadors — Francisco Pizarro (conqueror of Peru), Francisco de Orellana (first European to navigate the Amazon), and Diego García de Paredes all came from here or nearby. The money they sent back built the Renaissance palaces that still ring the Plaza Mayor, where an equestrian statue of Pizarro dominates the square. Above the city, a Moorish castle with Roman foundations offers views across the dehesa — the cork-oak savannah that is both the source of Ibérico pigs and one…
Trujillo was a Roman foundation (Turgalium), taken by the Moors in the 8th century and retaken by Alfonso IX of León in 1232. Its position in the Extremadura made it the base for expeditions into the newly discovered Americas — the region's hidalgos (minor nobility) were too poor to inherit land but too proud to work, making them ideal recruits for conquest. Pizarro left Trujillo in 1502 with nothing and returned (briefly) vastly wealthy; the palace his family built with Peruvian gold still stands on the Plaza Mayor. The city has been remarkably preserved because Extremadura remained too poor…