Trujillo lies about 170 miles west of Madrid in a rugged and barren area of Spain known as Extremadura. Despite its isolation, Trujillo and its surroundings became important during the age of Spanish New World exploration. The conquistadors Francisco Pizarro, Hernan Cortez, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa all came from here, and they brought wealth and political cachet to the region. (...)
Trujillo lies about 170 miles west of Madrid in a rugged and barren area of Spain known as Extremadura. Despite its isolation, Trujillo and its surroundings became important during the age of Spanish New World exploration. The conquistadors Francisco Pizarro, Hernan Cortez, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa all came from here, and they brought wealth and political cachet to the region. In this dynamic atmosphere, a noble family, the Loaisas, constructed the Convento de la Coria in the 15th century.
Over the next three centuries, the Loaisas collaborated with other aristocratic families of Trujillo to commission enlargements to the convent. The convent initially housed an order of local Franciscan nuns, but during times of war, the wives and daughters of Trujillo’s soldiers sought refuge here, thus giving birth to the site’s alternative name, the Convent of the Noble Ladies. In addition to its importance locally in the small town of Trujillo, the convent had strong associations with Spanish involvement in the Americas: Francisco Pizarro, an illegitimate son of an officer, was born in the Coria.
