Romangordo, An Open-air Museum

Can you imagine walking through the streets of a small Extremadura town and suddenly finding yourself with an impressive mannequin challenge ? Something similar happens in Romangordo, a small town of just under 300 inhabitants that in recent years has turned a whole cast of pictorial art onto its facades and doors.

Next, we travel to this small town to show you a little of its identity through its varied and exciting trompe l’oeils. Without a doubt, it is the best option to visit an open-air museum.

Romangordo, between hills and meadows

This small town, located to the east in the province of Cáceres, occupies a location well served by the Southwest Highway (A-5). Geographically, the environment in which it is located is privileged, since it is in the transition between different natural regions. To the north, the Tagus River and the Torrejón-Tajo reservoir give continuity to the Arañuelo Field, which separates the Tagus and Tiétar rivers.

On the other hand, to the southeast extend the first elevations of the Sierra de Las Villuercas, which characterize the region of Los Ibores. To the west you can see the picturesque landscape of the nearby Monfragüe National Park, starting from the Sierra de Piatones and the Sierra de la Moheda.

In its historical aspect, Romangordo originates from the ancient Makhada Albalat, an important Muslim settlement that was fortified in the 10th century and which in the 12th century was already mentioned as one of the most important towns in the area.

Rural life brought to painting

Truly, the fabulous idea of ​​this town to show the world its charms is the least remarkable. At the time of “rural depopulation”, of “emptied Spain” and other clichés referring to the progressive disappearance of the rich and varied rural heritage, the way in which this municipality has known how to bet to safeguard its own is exciting.

As soon as we enter the town, we find a large mural against gender violence that is overwhelming for its realism. This one shows a woman, who they say is the author’s mother, with a paper dove and the words “brave, equal and free” written on it.

This is the first of the almost a hundred trompe l’oeils distributed throughout its streets and that are displayed on facades and doors. They are joined by others with phrases from local poets and great writers of the stature of Antonio Machado or Federico García Lorca.

Walking around the town is learning what country life is like, tasting its typical sweets and tasting its pitarra wines in its successful painting of the bar. And be careful! Because if we don’t pay attention, we may end up asking one of her portrayed neighbors for directions sewing “al fresco”, because, in effect, these trompe l’oeils mislead the eye.

Trades and traditions with history in Romangordo

In Romangordo there is no corner in which a trade is not portrayed,  many of them located in the same place where its protagonists used to be. Among them, the telephone operator, the shoemaker or even the teacher, painted with his students in what was the old school.

” Door to door, we will paint our life and our history, ” says one of the mottos of Romangordo’s urban art. And what reason is he, because you just have to take a walk through its streets to discover trades and traditions that one day marked the work of this town.

You will be surprised by a woman making cheese, a man dedicated to cork, animals in his stables, the traditional scenes of agriculture, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the beehives, the baker, the washerwomen … And, on the other hand, the older ones, source of local wisdom, they also have their own murals in the municipality’s home for the elderly.

«Come to be thrilled»

With this phrase he invites the people of Romangordo to explore its past and its present, because in a few years this town has gone from 6,000 visits a year to 47,000 registered in 2019. All this taking into account only those that are formally registered in the «Casa de los Aromas», the Romangordo tourist office.

With these figures, it is clear that trompe l’oeil has put Romangordo on the tourist map of visitors from all latitudes. With this, other places of interest that are also worth a visit on your trip through Extremadura are made known.

Cover image: Flickr.com / María Victoria Guerrero Catalán.