Santa Marta de Magasca is a small rural municipality of Extremadura among rivers. Its material and immaterial heritage is tied to its people and to its traditional lifestyle.
RELIGIOUS HERITAGE
- Parochial Church: The deterioration of the former church due to the passage of time was the cause that at the end of the fifties of last century the works of the new parish of Santa Marta started. Some artistic objects of the Hermitage have been moved as a baptismal font made of granite and a Crucified from the 18th century. It is necessary to stand out its tower with approximately 20 m height, which has a nest of a white stork.
- Hermitage: It is a simple but beautiful building with a nave and a presbytery.
The original church was built in the 15th century and reformed in the 16th. Since then and up its complete reform that ended in 1993, it practically kept its original aspect, with a few repairs and some additions, as the entrance porch and the bell gable. There are several saints' images in its interior, among which stands out the former image of Holy Marta, built in polychrome plaster. Some of these images are located in the three altars of the temple: two sides with altarpieces built in masonry (that of the Holiest Christ and that of the Candles) and with sgraffitos, and the Major Altar, the most beautiful, built in polychrome wood and presided by a restored figure of Holy Catalina, long ago venerated as Holy Marta. This Major Altar is located in the centre of a great arch of brick and on a few beautiful sgraffitos. The origin of all these elements is uncertain, though they might be from the middle of the 19th century. The groin vault of the sacristy made of brick also stands out, as well as a small baroque altarpiece, the pulpit (17th century) and a granite pillar, two polychrome windows in the lateral wall coverings, two big copper lamps and other liturgical elements. As a curiosity, in the floor of the Hermitage, there is a well that dates back of the 17th century that, according to the tradition, besides for the cleanliness of the temple, served to recover to the cattle from the leeches due to the coldness of its waters. Annexed, since the 16th century, where the park is today, was the old cemetery, up to the construction of the current one in the forties of the 20th century.
The original church was built in the 15th century and reformed in the 16th. Since then and up its complete reform that ended in 1993, it practically kept its original aspect, with a few repairs and some additions, as the entrance porch and the bell gable. There are several saints' images in its interior, among which stands out the former image of Holy Marta, built in polychrome plaster. Some of these images are located in the three altars of the temple: two sides with altarpieces built in masonry (that of the Holiest Christ and that of the Candles) and with sgraffitos, and the Major Altar, the most beautiful, built in polychrome wood and presided by a restored figure of Holy Catalina, long ago venerated as Holy Marta. This Major Altar is located in the centre of a great arch of brick and on a few beautiful sgraffitos. The origin of all these elements is uncertain, though they might be from the middle of the 19th century. The groin vault of the sacristy made of brick also stands out, as well as a small baroque altarpiece, the pulpit (17th century) and a granite pillar, two polychrome windows in the lateral wall coverings, two big copper lamps and other liturgical elements. As a curiosity, in the floor of the Hermitage, there is a well that dates back of the 17th century that, according to the tradition, besides for the cleanliness of the temple, served to recover to the cattle from the leeches due to the coldness of its waters. Annexed, since the 16th century, where the park is today, was the old cemetery, up to the construction of the current one in the forties of the 20th century.
- Cross of the Fallen. When the Civil War ended (1936-39), and in commemoration of all the fallen people in the contest, without differentiation of the sides, it was raised this simple cross built with brick, cement and whitewashed, lifted on a staggered pedestal.
CIVIL HERITAGE
- Jurisdictional statue. In 1559, the village of "Marta" becomes an Estate free of more taxes and with its own jurisdiction. As an example of this local independence, Álvaro de Loaisa, the first Master of the Santa Marta, raises the statue that we see today, the oldest and most emblematic monument of the villa, with the blazon of this lineage. Constructed in granite, it has three circular grandstands. It is finished by an iron forge, placed in the thirties of the 20th century. In the middle of this century, it fell because of an accident and we had to install it again.
- The building of “La fábrica” (the factory). This big building has its origin in the middle of the 20th century. It always housed small local industries. It was a bakery and the first place in the village where there was electricity, through a diesel engine that has become a decorative element. A few years ago it was restored by the local businessman Olegario González, who has turned it into a luxury rural accommodation for his clients.
- Palace of Pascualete. This beautiful palace is in the estate Pascualete, property of the Count of Quintanilla, the son of the Countess of Romanones. It has a marked rural character and it is the best palace of these characteristics of the rural environment of Santa Marta. It has its origin in the 13th century, reusing for its construction numerous Roman remains of a former local villa, such as columns or gravestones with inscriptions. Also, it also has Roman remains that confirm its origin, like the entrance arch and the frames of doors and windows.
- Mines of the Serafina. They are in the Estate El Carrascalejo, on the way to Trujillo. These mines of lead and silver were exploited since at least the 1st century B.C. until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th, building hundreds of meters of deep galleries and extraction wells. Nowadays we can visit its high chimneys made of brick, located close to the former wells that are sealed for security purposes.
- Asylum of St Jose and St Margarita. It is located in the Estate of the Alberguerías, close to the “Cordel del Puente de la Lavadera”. It was directed by the Josefinas’ Sisters of the Holiest Trinidad and it was inaugurated in 1924. During decades it received hundreds of elders from the whole region. In addition, it had a school for the children. Also, it served as a charity for people in need. It had its own cemetery, nowadays in ruins. The asylum closed in the middle of the seventies, being relocated the elderly in another asylum, though it was used as a centre of spirituality and a place of an annual pilgrimage, social life and meetings. Recently it has been restored for touristic and hunting purposes.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE
- “Stone of the Eagle”. It is located in the meadow of Valdehonduras. It is a petroglyph from the Bronze Age. Nobody knows very well what sense it had, though it is very probable to be an astral interpretation.
- Pascualete's Roman remains. In this estate, there are several remains of a former Roman villa: reliefs, manual mills, columns, ashlars and more than a dozen of epigraphical inscriptions (votive and funerary), some of them in a good state of conservation and legibility.
- Archaeological Complex of “Gatillo de Arriba” (Upper trigger). It is located in the Estate Las Matallanas, half a way between Marta and Sierra de Fuentes. There are numerous post-Roman, Visigoth and medieval remains; among these remains stand out the ones found in the church - necropolis (graves, funerary objects, liturgical elements, Roman epigraphical inscriptions, etc.) and the defensive medieval tower. Most of the materials found are in the Archaeological Provincial Museum of Caceres.
- Anthropomorphous tombs. From the Visigoth period, there are 5 tombs excavated in slate in the surroundings of Santa Marta.
- Arab settlements. In the municipal area of Trujillo, near to the road that comes up to Monroy, are the remains of a possible Arab farmhouse in the Estate El Herruz; and the Villeta del Azuquén located in the confluence of the rivers Tozo and Almonte. The latter was inhabited between the centuries 10th and the 13th. It preserves a wall with 1520 meters of perimeter and 15 defensive towers. It stands out an alquerque (a board game) engraved in slate. Both settlements were settled over previous pre-Romans and Romans villages.
VERNACULAR HERITAGE
The popular architecture is related to the traditional activities and the customs of the inhabitants of a place. It is simple but practical and well-elaborated. In the area of Santa Marta it is possible to find a multitude of vestiges of this ancient know-how. The materials used always were those that provided the environment: slate, quartzite, wood of oak and wild olive tree, adobe, lime and mud. As representative elements, there are a multitude of shepherd huts, pigsties (there are dozens in the meadow Boyal), fountains and water wells, hunting stalks, stables, henhouses, delimiting walls, paths, fords, etc. The Tejar de las Suertes stands out, as well as the livestock crush of the Calle del Cementerio (Cemetery street), the mill of Magasca and the fishing, the typical streets like the street Fontanilla and the bridges (some of them are complete such as Mocha, Moreno or Cerralbos; but others are in ruins such as the República in the Almonte, in the frame of a road project that was abandoned during its construction). At the particular initiative of a neighbour of Santa Marta, a small Ethnographic Museum has been created, which can be visited previous authorization.
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